The Millionaire’s Gamble: Ryan & McDonald Awarded the $3M Rail Contract

At 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon the contract for the construction of the main line of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern railway connecting Seattle on Puget Sound with Spokane Falls in Eastern Washington, was let to the millionaire contracting firm of Ryan & McDonald, of New York. The mileage embraced in this contract is about 229 miles, and extends from a point a few miles east of the Gilman mine, in Snoqualmie valley, via the Snoqualmie Pass, to connect with the fifty-mile section of the road which is now being built west from the Falls.

The cost of this section is estimated at $3,000,000, and the road must be completed so that trains can run between Seattle and Spokane Falls within two years from this 17th day of May, 1895.

THE CONTRACTORS. The firm which has been awarded this, the greatest railroad contract ever let at one time in Washington Territory, are well known in the East. They built the division of the Baltimore & Ohio between Philadelphia and New York, and were recently engaged in building mails for the Illinois Central in Illinois. Learning that there was likelihood of some contracts being let in Washington Territory, they sent their partners, Messrs. Smith and Burns, of Baltimore to the Sound as their representatives, to look over the line of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern, and if the route was found favorable and the mileage to be let sufficient to justify the moving of an extensive plant from the east to the sound, Messrs. Smith and Burns were duly empowered and directed by Ryan and McDonald to put in a bid for them. This bid and a number of others were received by Chief Engineer Paul Mohr several days ago, and that gentleman has been laboring night and day over them to determine which was the most desirable. On Tuesday he came to the conclusion that the bid of Messrs. Ryan and McDonald is the most favorable, and reported to headquarters. The answer came back at once. Figures acceptable, award contract. Mr. Mohr at once notified Messrs. Smith and Burns, who, being duly and legally authorized, signed the agreement yesterday for Messrs. Ryan and McDonald.

THE CONTRACT. The contract which they have entered into provides for the construction and completion (including laying rails and ballasting) the entire main line to be constructed between Seattle and Spokane Falls beginning at both ends and working both east and west. As said before, their contract embraces a section of 229 miles of road. One of the terms of the contract is that this extensive mileage shall be completed within two years from the date of the signing of the contract, so that the road will be in condition to handle its share of the grain crop of Eastern Washington in the fall of 1897.

THE ROUTE. Within ten days Messrs. Ryan and McDonald will start in at the fifty-first mile post on the line of the road from Seattle and thirty miles this side of the Snoqualmie pass, going through the largest hop yard in the world, located in the Snoqualmie valley and abutting along the bank of the famous Snoqualmie Falls, where every day a great pleasure resort will be established. The road runs thence along Snoqualmie prairie and Snoqualmie river, to and through an immense forest of timber twenty miles long and eight miles wide, which has been fully described by such old lumbermen as J.H. McDonald, A. Mackintosh and James W. Ferry, of Michigan, as the finest body of timber in the world.

As the road emerges from this forest it penetrates the GREAT CASCADE BELT of the Cascade range, tapping rich beds of anthracite coal, not yet developed, and immense deposits of limestone and marble. This brings the road right into the heart of the famous iron mines of the Snoqualmie, which have been owned by citizens of Seattle for more than twenty years and which have been pronounced by experts both in England and America as unsurpassed in quality of ore and extent of deposit.

When the line of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern reaches the summit of the Cascade mountains in the Snoqualmie Pass it will be only 150 feet above the platform of the Northern Pacific tunnel through the same range of mountains which cut off over 600 miles of the Swinomish. Besides this, on account of the more favorable grade in the Snoqualmie Pass, but little snow-shedding will be required.

Leaving the pass, the road skirts along the shores of Lake Rattlesnake, a picturesque little body of clear water, one of the most beautiful mountain lakes in the world, which abounds in trout, and has been fittingly designated as the sportsman's paradise. The road proceeds thence by easy and inexpensive construction to the mineral resources of the Puyallup and on down through the fertile and beautiful valley of Tumaquam.

Within a decade this productive garden thirty miles in extent at present sparsely populated with a thrifty and enterprising people, who, on account of railroad facilities to transport their crops to market, have gone extensively into the growing of fruits, lie at the heart of the beautiful Puget Sound country. The road has obtained from the city of Seattle a right-of-way over its streets, and will extend a line to the Columbia river, thus giving an outlet to Eastern Washington.

The valley will be by all means the most important agricultural district on the Pacific coast... The agricultural lands tributary to this river go by the general name of Cowlitz Prairie... which are acknowledged to be the largest and most fertile grain producing region in the Territory, being 100 miles in extent and capable of supporting millions of people.

It stands to reason that this company will not be content with the main line alone, but the public may expect to see, all over Eastern Washington lines of railway, or feeders to the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern, which will give an impetus to the development of that splendid country.