FROM TRUCKEE TO OGDEN
WHEN THE CONSTRUCTION forces of the Central Pacific reached the Nevada boundary line, December 13, 1867, the most difficult part of construction work had been accomplished. Five years had been spent in building the railroad from Sacramento through the Sierras, five years of heartbreaking toil and incredible expenditures.
While the worst was over, building the rest of the line was anything but easy, and the distance had to be covered as quickly as possible. Although the Union Pacific company had begun construction on their part of the line about a year later than the Central Pacific, they had built a greater mileage owing to the advantage of a much easier grade averaging only thirteen and one-half feet to the mile, and having a comparatively near base of supplies. While the Central Pacific was getting through the Sierras, the Union Pacific had built four hundred miles across the plains. At the beginning of the year 1868, the two companies were about eleven hundred miles apart.
Early in January, 1868, Mr. Huntington entered into negotiations with the directors of the Union Pacific Company to establish a point for the meeting of the two railroads, but without success. The Union Pacific directors hoped to shut the Central Pacific out on the American Desert somewhere
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