The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 7, 1906, Page 38

THE FRANCISCO - CONQUEST OF & THE PENINSU walt on the Ocean Shore; everything is speedy and comfortable, the magnificent view nowhere hidden from the sight of beaches and 1ts noted| two hours to make the trip. Nowhere a things the globe trot-| cogwheel incline to jolt him into a fever- m the windows of electric| ish temper and ruin his pleasure; nowhere & iuxurious | a serles of smoke-choked tunnels to irri- will take him a little oy tate his lungs; nowhere a long, tedious States with its bathing All of these standard uge and t. It — CENT U SAN ¢ W\ SREGORIO e B FAANCL/CO. FRESNOS A7 WORH NERR IHALE STO0N" - - - - BAY FOINT WHERE THE LINE IS BUILT ON THE SIOE oF B R CIPICE / after he has made his journey over this wonderful line, *“Yes, there are individual scenes in the world more inspiring, but s of No magnificent panorama of the beautl nature in so many diversified forms. line can equal it. It is pre-eminent.” FEATS OF CONSTRUCTION. Such is the line of the Ocean Shore which is now under the course of con- struction. It is backed by San Francis- cans. It means much to San Francisco. Not only will it open up a scenic route unsurpassed anywhere in the world, but it will tap a fertile stretch of country whose resources will be augmented to the millions by this entrance to a market. But the story of the Ocean Shore Rall- way is not merely one of enriched lands and beautiful marine scenery. There is the story of its building; a story of how engineers and contractors fought a coun- try so rugged that to build a double track broad gauge railway over its surface seemed impossible. They have been suc- cessful in the battle. These same wonders of nature, these crags and precipices and gulches, the solid granite formation of mountains, the great sea pounding be- low—all producing an unsurpassed pano- rama of beauty—these presented engineer- ing problems most difficult to men. No wonder that the project of opening this railway was so long delayed. Few capi- talists would have dared sink their money in the venture; few contractors could TeprTIivG Tz BLyFES AT TONVIZASL ow Pma%. | haveibeen found who were able to carry i ring away and building | d the work of tearing away and | St <ful completion. The fublic up to a suce the,_tourist. Is it any wonder that the | nowhere iaye I ever found a railway |will never realize the wonder of the en- | gypeq traveler of next year will say to himself | which shows to its passengers such a|gineering feats nor the amount of money i CUTTING A ROUTE ALONG THE CLIFFS spent in the development’ in this hitherto declared impossible project. ABLE WORK OF C, E. LOSS. The man who stands pre-eminent in the conquest of rugged nature and the bufld- ing of the road is C. E. Loss, a man of world-wide experience in the construc- tion of raflways. No, not to one man alone should the credit be given, but to| this man and his able lieutenant, H. F. Wells, together with a staff of able as- sistants. They have done all the com- struction work on the new road: they will leave the line ready for the introduction of the rolling stock, a line whose safety and solidity is unquestioned and which | will stand for centuries as a testimonial of their engineering and contracting ability. Think for a moment of the difficulties which confronted Mr. Loss and his as- sistants at the beginning of their work. They must grade eighty-three miles of volcanic formed country twisted and up- heaved into crags and chasms by a sub- sequent earthquake. The roadbed must be made safe as a peaceful valley route. | The mountains must be crossed without producing steep grades. This contractor accepted the task from John B. Rogers, chief engineer of the Ocean Shore, and assured him that he would complete the work satisfactorily. The work is not yet completed, but every | official of the Ocean Shore and every en- | gineer who has inspected the line will enthusiastically testify that the work has progressed with such marvelous rapidity that there Is no longer any doubt as to its speedy and successtul completion. SUSPEND MEN IN MIDAIR. Mr. Loss began his operations with the energetic intensity of purpose which has marked his engineering and contracting career. There were places where he was fofced to lower men down the sides of precipices with ropes so that they, sus- pended in midair, the sky above them and the sea below, might drill holes into which powder might be inserted to blast out a foothold for the graders. Such an accomplishment meant days of slow and dangerous work, yet it was successfully carried out and a little pathway made in the solid granite ledge along which the graders might form the roadbed. Tons of powder were used to blow off tops of crags. An army of men and horses fol- lowed the blasters to widen out the path- way into a voadbed. Steam shovels of tremendous strength gathered up the tons of loose rock and dumped them into the sea to form an embankment. Valleys were filled from the waste of the moun-< tain cuts. Great chutes were erected to, facilitate the work of filling in. Trains of diminutive dirt cars were employed. Bvery means known to modern engineer- ing was used o accomplish the- great work. The result is evident. Although the contract for the excavating and fll- | Almost Insuperable Obstacles : Overcome by Engineers in the Construction of Ocean Shore Road September, to- ing wgs only sigr langerous ay the mest of the completion. wor The CONTRACTORS ARE EFFICI Is it any wonder that he has completed sreat contracts In Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico and South Amer- ica? Such accompiishments have given Mr. Loss a reputatior a successful eto coniids c votfon of his employ wonder, then, that t Pullman wired J. B. Haggin, when the latter was about to build with Marcus Daly a raflway line in Mexico which » sented unusual ulties, “Gtve C. E. Loss your work. Fe has just completed a $3,000,000 contract for our company to our entire satisfaction.” Such a reputa- tion comes only to one who accomplishes. Curiously enough, the hardest tasks whieh confronted the contractors in build- ing the line were right in San Francisco and just below Colma. The main freight depots of the Ocean Shore will be at Army street, near Illinois and Kentucky streets. Here there was a great swamp. Into this waste the contractors are pour- ing thousands of tons of disintegrated rock from the cuts in the mountains be- low. The work was very hard. The footing was insecure and the haul was long. Solid ground has been made where for centuries a waste swamp proved & hindrance to progress. HARDSHIPS AT SAN PEDRO. It has been along the steep sides of San Pedro Mountain where the most San Pe- spectacular work is beiug done. miles drg Mountain ltes abo ourteen south of Colma and its t granite nose juts out into the waters of the Pacifle, forming a sheer cliff 1000 fret high. Here is where the men were ed by ropes and suspended in midair until they could drill blast holes for the powder. The blasts were fired and a little pat opened. Then the graders began work. At some places th. path was so narrow that only one man could work at a time. A slip would have meant a ter- rible fall into the sea 300 feet . below. Powder and blast dug out a way. The into the oceam debris was dumped over to form a natural bed c hauled out in dummy cars to be used to fill the low spots. Along the stde of this great clff the roadbed was steadily pushed A de- tour could have been made on the oth- er side of the mountain, but this would have spoiled the magnificent view. So the work went on. even tunneis were at first contemplat: Here is where Mr. was J. B. Rogers, chief engineer, showed his genius. Well know the most disagreeab tain t-avel, he redu only cne tunnel and that long. .1e accomplished this by thorough cuts. Stretches were biasted through the s ex- soltd granite rock at an e bla pense. Nine tous of u_3d at one shooting a rock were torn from the yuntain and blown into the sea from the force of the explosion. Plunge batteries were used to touch off the powder. At ome point on this® precipice a hole was dug the mountain seventy feet deep. s was cross-sectioned by & 30-foot tu This tunnel was filled with powder—it took three days to do the filling—and the whols exploded by the plunge battery. Thirt we was five hundred tons of solid rock blown into the Pacific. This point Saddle Cut. EMPLOYS ARMY OF MEN. The grading along Tonitas Poiut, a pro~ montory section of land below Pescadero, is within a few feet of the very ocean. Here the soil \was fairly loose, and great Fresno scrapers, pulled by four horses each, completed the work in hurry time. The top of the bluff was cut and the low places filled in order to keep the level grade. Conslderable blasting was done at Tonitas Point. Much grading was done near Halfmoon Bay. Fresnos and steam shovels were used to great advantage at this polat. A small army of men and horses were work~ ing on this dump. Swanson’s cut proved to be another &iffi- cult plece of work. It seemed necessary at W this point to drive a tunnel, but Mr. J. B. Rogers, chief engineer, again solved the problem by going along with his thorough cuts. _The illustrations above show how this work was accomplished, and give the reader some idea of the dif- ficulties which it involved. The work Ras not been started from one point and completed before any other point was touched. Men have been working north from Santa Cruz and south from Saa Francisco, while crews have been sta~ tiored at Halfmoon Bay, Tonitas Point, Pescadero, San Gregorio and many other points along the lne. To John B. Rogers much praise must @ given. As chief engineer of the Ocean Shore he conceived the possibility of the construction and did much to ald In fits. accomplishment. The officials of the new rallway—Walter E. Dean, president; J. Downey Harvey, vice presideat; A. D. Bowen, general manager, and Burke Cor- bet, attorney—have been tireiess in thelr efforts to make this railway a grand bene- fit to San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO GETS BENEFIT. And how will San Francisco be bene- fited? By the opening up of 250,000 acres of practically virgin land for cultivation, the advancement of a great timber indus- try and the marketing of the valuable mineral products of this section. . Milllons of dollars will pass through San Francis- co in trade each year when this road is completed that before knew no outlet. The coast country between San Fran- cisco and Santa Cruz has long béen rieh in agriculturai prospec but there was no way to market the product once I was raised. Small crops have been culti- vated in this district, hauled many -miles over the mountains to the Southern Pa- cific and then shipped to San Franciseo and Eastern points. The cost cf such handling was enormous. The grower along the coast could not compete with his rival nearer the railroad. Now this will be done away with. The valleys wiil grow rich wita crogs each year, and the grower can market them quickly and at a small cost. The Occan Shore has planne to carry all the freight that the region will offer. There are acres of great timber stand- ing uncut because the cost of marketing the product was too great. Mills will spring up and make this a great indust Grazing and dairying on the moun sides will form a profitable living to many settlers, There are mineral re- sources of untold wealth. Chalk reek and limestcne abound. To the San Franciscan this road will offer a delightful means of quick escape from the smoke and dirt of the city. In a few minutes he can be In a land where there a.e sun and flowers and the ocean. Or he can get Into rugs~d mountains, it he so desires. It will be possible for the sportsman to leave the city in the morn- ing, shoot his wild ganie down neir Pes- cadero—ducks, deer and fish aboundiy coodk his noonday meal -midst - forest scenes of wildest nature and then board a train which will land him in San Fras- cisco in time for supper., Could anything more be desired? &k <