Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 edition. Excerpt: ...the greatest triumph of engineering skill and labor on the whole line. The track going west ascends twenty-five hundred feet in fifty miles, and descends six thousand feet in seventy-five miles. There are over a mile of tunnels on the route, and a million of dollars were spent in blasting-powder alone for the construction. Majestic, frowning peaks hang over us, deep, almost fathomless gorges lie beneath us, as we follow out and around the long ridges in the descent into California; and amid scenes more bold and impressive than any we have yet passed through, we pass out into the lower valleys, and reach California's capital, Sacramento. Three lines invite us thence to San Francisco: the river-boats; a short-cut railroad to Yallejo at the head of the bay, with a twenty-mile ferriage; or the Pacific Railroad's proper prolongation around through Stockton to Oakland, the rural suburb and school-house of San Francisco, lying opposite, and an hour's steamboat ride away, on the bay. By and by rails will circuit the bay, and we may go into the heart of San Francisco without " breaking bulk " or touching water. Sacramento, Stockton, and Oakland are all worth a passing glance. They are inland rural cities, like Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio, or Hartford, Springfield, and Worcester in New England, pleasantly located by the water, brisk with local trade and developing manufactures, mature in social and religious elements, rich in many beautiful homes; they rank next to San Francisco among the towns of California. Sacramento and Stockton stand respectively at the heads of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, which form, north and south, the great interior basin and agricultural region of the State, and whose waters uniting pour westward and...