The Northern Pacific Railroad Completes Its Transcontinental Link
As the final spike is driven, the editor weighs the economic shift between the Pacific Northwest and the established power of California.
The story, cleaned up
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The Northern Pacific was formally completed last Friday. The event is one of great importance to certain parts of the country and to the railroad company, but to the country and the world it is insignificant compared with the opening of the Union and Central Pacific in 1869. That first opened the way across the continent, and, what was perhaps still more, brought the territory of the continent west of the Missouri into reach. The Northern Pacific is certainly much less important than the first Pacific railroad, but it is much more important, both for through and local traffic, than any of the others that have been built. It does what none of them have done, in that it brings into closer connection with the East an important district on the Pacific coast. Now the Northern Pacific abolishes for Oregon the cost of coast transportation between San Francisco and Portland—about 700 miles—on all transcontinental shipments. Oregon and Washington must at once feel the advantage of the railroad to a marked extent.
“A new Pacific railroad ceases to interest more than a new road east of the Mississippi, and may be much less important in its effects on traffic.”
The completion of the Northern Pacific in 1883 transformed Seattle from a remote lumber outpost into a transcontinental hub, mirroring the city's later transition into a global tech center. This expansion fueled the rapid growth of the late 19th century, setting the stage for the infrastructure-heavy urban development that still defines Seattle’s struggles with transit and capacity today.
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