2,000 Workers Push Great Northern Railroad Across Washington
Thousands of laborers forge the path for James J. Hill's railway empire as bridge and grade construction intensifies across the Washington territory.
The story, cleaned up
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F. E. Parker, superintendent for Shepard, Henry & Co. on the Great Northern road, states that about 2,000 men are at work on this side of the mountains, with plans to increase that number to 3,000. Grading is nearly finished as far as Granite Point, thirty-three miles from Snohomish, and track laying is scheduled to begin before August. Work on the switchback begins in two weeks, utilizing a temporary timber structure to bypass tunnels until their completion. Meanwhile, in the east, W. P. Watson reports the bridge location over the Columbia River is finalized nine miles below Wenatchee. Engineers have established headquarters in Wenatchee, and contractor activity is surging as the railway pushes toward a potential traffic alliance with the Missouri Pacific, promising to connect Puget Sound directly to the markets of the Southwest.
“The track of the switchback will be built on timbers, as such a structure can be put up more rapidly than a road could be blasted out of the rock.”
The massive infrastructure project described here—which reshaped the topography of the Pacific Northwest—mirrors the contemporary logistical obsession with regional connectivity. While the switchbacks and wooden trestles have long since vanished, the corridor established by Hill remains a vital, contentious artery for transcontinental commerce.
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