The Milwaukee, Chicago & St Paul railroad company’s expansion from Mobridge, SD to Puget Sound was called the Pacific Expansion. Known as the Milwaukee Road, it connected Chicago to Seattle and Tacoma Washington.
This 1,400 mile expansion with 52 tunnels required to cross five mountain ranges (Belts, Bitterroots, Cascades, Rockies, and Saddles) was surveyed in 1901 and began construction in 1906. It took three years to complete and cost $60 million. Approximately 2 billion in Biden Bucks. It was not built on land provided by the government so the cost included the purchase of right of way.
Unlike the first transcontinental rail which was thrown down in a hurry and then fixed later, this rail included some impressive construction. The attached video is mainly focused on the Washington portion, but illustrates the impressive bridge and tunnel construction.
This is the summary I get on from Brave browser’s AI with regard to the high speed rail project from LA to San Francisco:
The California High-Speed Rail (CHSR) project is a planned high-speed rail system that will connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in the state of California, United States. The project has been under development since 2008, and its estimated cost has increased significantly over the years.
According to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, the estimated cost of the project has risen to between $88 billion and $128 billion. This is a significant increase from the initial estimate of $33 billion in 2008.
The CHSR project is currently under construction, with the initial operating segment (IOS) expected to be completed in 2030. The project is expected to be fully operational by 2040.
Every time I read about a 19th or early 20th century engineering project of great magnitude, I always get the same result.
Besides being completed much faster than anything can be completed today, the inflation adjusted cost is remarkable low. Orders of magnitude lower. I asked ChatGPT the total cost of just the steel rails.
According to ChatGPT the current proposed track will be 800 miles long and:
For a large-scale high-speed rail project like California’s, which involves hundreds of miles of track, the total cost of steel rails alone could amount to several billion dollars.
I asked ChatGPT what was the median wage in 1906:
In 1906, the median wage in the United States varied depending on the occupation, industry, and region. However, to provide a rough estimate, historical data suggests that the median annual wage for a typical worker in the United States during that time period was approximately $400 to $500. Keep in mind that this figure is an approximation and may not accurately reflect the wages of all workers, as incomes varied widely across different sectors and geographic areas. Additionally, it’s essential to consider factors such as inflation and purchasing power when comparing historical wage data to contemporary figures.
Using the same Biden Buck inflation adjustment, $500 is around 16,600.
Something went wrong, even China cannot build these types of engineering projects at the inflation adjusted cost.
A large stretch of the Pacific expansion was abandoned circa 1980. This video takes a look at this the Washington portion of the abandoned track. It may not be worth people’s time to watch this full video unless you like railroad tunnels, bridges and scenery, but if you watch you will notice that the bridges and tunnels are impressive and although abandoned for 40 years are still standing. The same bridge design are still used on maintained portions of railway which are a testament to the quality of design and construction.
I couldn’t help but think of John’s description of the US as a railroad era empire and of this abandoned rail system looking like the ruins of the Roman empire.
