J.J. Hill's Great Northern Railway Nears the Coast
A look at the rapid rise of James J. Hill and the construction of the Great Northern railway through the rugged Cascades.
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.
In this day of rapidly made fortunes, there is none more remarkable than the rise of President J. J. Hill from poverty to affluence. Three decades ago he was an unknown laborer on the Mississippi river docks at St. Paul. Today, he is the moving spirit behind the Great Northern Railway. Mr. Hill's long-time dream of a transcontinental line is now nearing realization. Engineers have been in the field locating the line from Spokane to the coast, down Crab Creek, across the Columbia, up the Wenatchee, and down to the coast through the pass discovered by Engineer Stevens. Already contractors are in the field east of the Columbia, and work has begun on the western slope of the Cascades. Under the guidance of Chief Engineer E. H. Beckler, the Sound country will soon have continuous rail connection with St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“Across mountains, rivers, chasms, canyons, prairies and forests, conquering with sane, expert skill every obstacle which nature seemed to raise as a bulwark against farther progress.”
James J. Hill’s 'Great Northern' line forever altered Washington’s landscape, effectively ending the isolation of the inland regions. Today, the infrastructure of that era—now largely operated by BNSF—remains the backbone of regional freight, showing how the boom-era engineering choices of 1892 still dictate the physical and economic geography of the Pacific Northwest.
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