Forging the Iron Path Through the Cascades
A look at the grueling engineering feat of the Great Northern Railway’s passage across the mountain divide.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The road from Spokane west was long in planning, but it was not until the fall of 1891 that the contract for the grading and bridging was let. When the great army of laborers was moved from one end of the state to the other, the work went ahead with a rush. Despite complications, tracklaying was resumed on July 10 and pushed with great rapidity. To hasten completion, rails were shipped to the west end, and beginning on August 11, sixty-five miles of track were laid from Lowell eastward. Some serious damage was done to the roadbed by floods at the end of November 1892, which washed out the trestles in Dutch Coulee and along the Skykomish River, but this was repaired in two weeks and track was at last connected 26 miles west of the Summit on the evening of January 9, 1893. Since that date the road has had many difficulties with the unusually heavy fall of snow, which frequently slid from the mountains in great avalanches. A large force of men was kept constantly at work, and the line is now quite ready for regular operation.
“They went out, often carrying food and beds in packs on their backs, and cleared the way for the engine which brings civilization, with its comfort, ease and luxuries in its train.”
The Great Northern's construction across the Cascades remains the backbone of the region's rail transit. While modern commuters might complain about delays, the 1893 effort involved literal battles against avalanches, washed-out trestles, and sheer mountain terrain to link Seattle to the interior.
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