the road-the Central Pacific on the California side, and the Union Pacific on the eastern side-the National Congress donated by grant, in fee simple, alternate sections of land along the line of the roads of these two companies amounting to 12,800 acres per mile, for each mile built, from Sacramento to Omaha, or an aggregate of 22,707,200 acres. Of this grant the Central Pacific received 8,832,000 acres, and the Union Pacific 13,875,200 acres.

The federal government also loaned to these two companies $52,840,000 of six per cent. thirty years bonds, and guaranteed the interest on the companies' first mortgage bonds to an equal amount-the interest paid by government on these bonds to be paid back by the companies. These are the most munificent donations ever made by any nation to any project or for any purpose in any age. The two companies building this road built the number of miles, and received the amounts of the national donation, as follows: Central Pacific built six hundred and ninety miles and received $24,386,000; the Union Pacific (from Ogden to Omaha) built 1,084 miles and received $28,456,000. The grant was distributed per mile, according to the difficulty in constructing: over the plains, sixteen thousand dollars per mile; second class, thirty-two thousand dollars per mile; and for the mountains, fortyeight thousand dollars per mile. Of these classes of road the companies built as follows, (which will account for the seeming small proportion received by the Union Pacific Company:) the Central Pacific (California) built twelve miles at sixteen thousand dollars per mile, five hundred and twenty-two miles at thirty-two thousand dollars per mile, and one hundred and fifty-six miles at

forty-eight thousand dollars per mile; the Union Pacific Company built five hundred and twenty-six miles at sixteen thousand dollars per mile, four hundred and eight miles at thirty-two thousand dollars per mile, and one hundred and fifty miles at forty-eight thousand. dollars per mile.

For more than half a century the subject of connecting the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the continent by rail had been agitated; but the friends of such a scheme were ridiculed by those who contemplated the vast arid plains and the stern Rocky mountains and Sierras, considered insurmountable barriers. Indeed, many of those who most zealously advocated the practicability of a railroad crossing these formidable mountain chains were regarded as insane, and not until the indomitable Californian had scaled the Sierras, and pierced their mighty granite ribs, did the people of the country become inspired with the possibility of uniting the East and the Pacific slope by rail; but the patient sons of the Orient, under the lead of American skill, toiling through and over the Sierras, gave confidence to the people of the Atlantic side, who set their faces toward the setting sun, and advanced to meet the laborers marching east.

The Central Pacific Company having completed the road from the waters of the Pacific to Promontory, in Utah Territory, and the Union Pacific Company having finished that from Omaha westward to Promontory, great preparations were made for celebrating the joining of the iron band connecting the East and the West. After six long years of unremitting toil, the task was ended: the army of eight thousand of the meek disciples of Confucius, headed by skilled engi

neers, had subdued nature in the formidable Sierras; bridges spanned deep and awful gorges, and angry, foaming streams; long tunnels pierced solid granite domes, and deep scars found safe footing for the iron horse round the sharp curves of frowning granite battlements and bold, projecting bluffs. The division from the East had passed the vast deserts dotted with neglected graves and the bleaching bones of the overburdened beast which fell by the wayside, and climbed the stern sides of the Rocky mountains. It was a meeting of the extremes of the nation-the joining of the East and the West. The day came upon which the last tie and the last rail were to be put in place: trains from the East arrived from the shores of the Atlantic gayly bedecked with flags, mottoes, and devices of victory; and up from the Golden Gate, in the Far West, where the setting sun bathes in the calm waters of the Pacific, came the hardy sons of California, with their callous hands and open hearts, to join their brothers of the East; from the East, dashing over vast plains, and bounding over the Rocky mountains, and from the West, over the eternal snows and through the stormclouds of the Sierras, came the impatient steed, whose fiery breath and hoarse shriek put to flight the children of the forest. In this triumphal train from the West came the "last tie"-a polished laurel from the golden shore of California-and the "last spike," of pure gold from the rocks of the Sierras. In the midst of the vast concourse from the East and West, the almond-eyed son of Asia, facing East, and the sturdy Celt and Saxon, facing West, join hands, as with uncovered heads, beneath the ensign of the republic, and amidst the firing of cannon, ringing of bells, and screaming of

whistles, the last tie was laid and the last spike driven in the national highway joining the two great oceans.

Extensive preparations had been made to celebrate the completion of this great work throughout the whole country. A telegraph station at the junction was so arranged that instant communication could be sent to all parts of the republic of the final joining of the rails, and the firing of guns by electricity at remote points.

At twelve o'clock M., on the 10th of May, 1869, the President of the Central Pacific road, with gold hammer in hand, stepped forward; a blessing was invoked by a clergyman present, all heads uncovered; a gentle blow of the hammer fell upon the last spike: the friction of the blow fired a fifteen-inch Parrott gun at the Golden Gate, eight hundred and eighty miles distant, rang the bells in the cities of San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and other places; and the people throughout the land spent the day in rejoicing at the completion of the grandest work of man ever undertaken, and the greatest triumph of

art over nature.

The completion of this national highway must eventually be of incalculable benefit to the whole country. Already has it brought what had seemed to be remote dependencies of the republic into close fellowship and active commercial relations with the Atlantic States, and brought the vast Pacific slope within easy supporting distance of the nation in case of foreign invasion or internal rebellion.

San Francisco has suffered from the immediate effects of the road in its diverting the channels of travel and trade; but what San Francisco loses will be more than gained by the State at large in its intercourse with the