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Railroad Communication with the Pacific,

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE

CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD
Fisk, firm, bankers, N.Y

OF

CALIFORNIA:

THE CHARACTER OF THE WORK, ITS PROGRESS, RESOURCES,
EARNINGS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS, AND THE

ADVANTAGES OF ITS

FIRST MORTGAGE BONDS.

NEW YORK, JULY, 1867.

New York:

GEORGE BROWN, PRINTER, 30 FRANKFORT STREET.

1867.

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CALIFORNIA OFFICE,

56 and 58 K Street, Sacramento City, Cal.

NEW YORK OFFICE,

349276

54 William Street, New York City.

RAILROAD COMMUNICATION

WITH THE PACIFIC.

CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD

THE GREAT NATIONAL PACIFIC RAILROAD LINE, which is being constructed, with the aid and under the supervision of the United States Government, between the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Ocean, forming with its existing eastern connections a continuous line across the continent, is destined to become one of the most important channels of trade and communication in the world. With its western terminus at San Francisco, the most commodious harbor on the North Pacific Coast, and its branches reaching the railroad systems of the Atlantic States by way of Chicago and Saint Louis, it constitutes, as it were, the Grand Trunk line of this hemisphere. It lies directly in the path of the great westward movement of population and trade, along the temperate belt across this country, and becomes an essential link in the mighty inter-continental traffic between Western Europe and Eastern Asia. It presents the shortest and most practicable route to the Pacific, and must serve four-fifths of all the population west of the Missouri river. It has a dense and productive group of States at one end of the line, and an energetic coast population at the other, with a rich mining country intermediate. Already centres of population dot its length from Omaha to San Francisco,

and it seems certain that a chain of great cities must grow up in its path, swelling, the volume of trade and travel to dimensions which baffle, all present estimate.

Need of a Railroad to the Pacific.

The necessity for railroad communication with the Pacific has been felt ever since the gold discoveries drew thither large numbers of active people. The yield of bullion has steadily increased, and gives signs of still greater expansion when increased facility of communication will have rendered mining industry more stable and profitable. Thus far only the richest veins could be worked at a profit, by reason of the very costly freights upon all the machinery and subsistence used in extracting the ores. Hereafter many mines will be put within the limit of profitable working; while the Asiatic market for precious metals is inappeasable.

The United States Commissioner of Mining Statistics gives the following estimate of the yield of precious metals from the Pacific States and territories:

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For the past year the product is estimated to be distributed thus:

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Oregon and Washington, 8,000,000 Nevada,.
Montana,..

$17,000,000

16,000,000

18,000,000 Colorado, Utah, &c..... 17,000,000

In eighteen years, the Pacific States have contributed no less than a thousand millions of gold and silver to the store of the world's treasure, and the annual yield is now reckoned at upwards of a hundred millions. This is a constant and immense addition to our material wealth-one of our greatest national resources. Already Oregon and California are sending us also the produce of their fields, vineyards and fisheries, and give indications of supporting an immense population.

Material and Social Benefits.

Beside an unprecedented export of bullion during the same period, there were shipped from San Francisco to New York and Great Britain, from the surplus of last year's harvest, between July 1 and April 27, as follows:

Wheat in sacks, 4,336,387 lbs.

Flour in bbls., 400,000.

The crop of 1867 promises to be even larger, and large portions of the great interior basin have drawn their supplies from the States of California and Oregon, aside from the above quantity exported.

West of the Missouri boundary lies a vast expanse of country, rich in soil and minerals, as yet hardly explored. With one half of the territory, it has less than a twentieth of the population of the country. California alone, with a population of ten millions, would be no more crowded than New York State is with four millions, and the capacity of the half million square miles beyond the Missouri to support a population of two hundred millions can hardly be doubted. The half million of people in California would speedily jump to five millions upon the establishment of railroad communication; and the value of all property interests, both there and in the intermediate territories, would be largely enhanced. A railroad is the one thing wanting to shower a general blessing on the Far West.

These gratifying results, together with the prospect of a vast trade between San Francisco, China, Japan, the East India Islands, British Columbia, the Sandwich Islands, the Central and South American ports, the newly acquired Russian America, have added to the original demand for a safe, speedy and short transit to the Pacific. The best route between London and Hong Kong will hereafter lie across the American Continent, thereby avoiding the perils of the Red Sea, or the long journey through the Southern Ocean. There is a manifest disability in the American people sending their passengers, mails, freights (and soldiers even), across a tropical foreign isthmus, or 15,000 miles round the Capes,

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