Two Million Bricks and a Hundred Jobs for the Cascade Gateway
The Union Brick Works of Tacoma wins the Northern Pacific's contract to line the Stampede Tunnel in fire-baked brick — a regional infrastructure job that will keep a hundred men working through the summer.
Tacoma, April 19 — Special — The Union Brick Works has secured a contract to supply the Northern Pacific railroad with 2,200,000 brick for the Stampede tunnel. The contract was let yesterday by General Manager Kendrick and General Superintendent Kimberly. The brick is to be used to complete the arching of the Stampede tunnel in the Cascades. For six years past the Northern Pacific has been removing a portion of the timber from the roof and walls of the tunnel, as it had become rotten in places, and while it was not considered dangerous, it was considered best to replace it with a permanent material. The Union Brick Works, of this city, has supplied the brick for six successive seasons past, and when the present contract for 2,200,000 is finished, they will have supplied 12,000,000 brick for the tunnel. The contract coming to Tacoma will give employment to about 100 men during four or five months.
“The contract coming to Tacoma will give employment to about 100 men during four or five months.”
Holed through the Cascades in 1888, the Stampede Tunnel was the Northern Pacific's lifeline over the mountains and remains an active rail route today. Contracts like this one show how big railroad spending worked as a frontier jobs program — a hundred men hired for months at a time — the same argument over who pays for, and who builds, the infrastructure that keeps a region moving still plays out over every tunnel, bridge and transit line.
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