Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1915 — Task for Engineers. [ARTICLE]

Task for Engineers.

The builders of the Alaskan Northern line, after laying many miles of track along the banks of the Placer river on a specially constructed and heavy embankment during a particularly severe winter, had both embankment and rails swept away in the spring by the river floods. On another portion of the route, along the steep mountain sides, the rails were swept into the valley through the slipping away of great chunks of the mountain sides. From beginning to end. It was * fierce fight against the forces of nature, and after some seventy-one miles of rails had been laid work was abandoned on account of Its prohibitive cost. It is the government’s intention to carry this line right into the heart of the country to Fairbanks. .To accomplish this some particularly deep canyons will have to be bridged and much swampy ground negotiated, which will demand all the pluck and dogged determination of the engineer.