ginia City and other Nevada points. Other San Francisco papers
joined in the fight and so energetically was it conducted, and so
powerful became the opposition that they actually prevailed upon the
people of San Francisco to repudiate their contract to purchase a
million dollars' worth of Central Pacific stock and compromise by
practically making the railroad company a present of $600,000 (which
had already been expended) provided they would release the City and
County from their pledge to raise the remaining $400,000.

The folly of this action is now so apparent that it is hard to
conceive how even political and civic jealousy or hatred could have
been so blinded to self-interest. The Central Pacific engineers had
undertaken one of the most difficult pieces of railway engineering in
the world, and the financiers of the company were having an equally
desperate struggle. During the Civil War the finances of the nation
were at a low ebb and money was exceedingly difficult to secure. Yet
in spite of all obstacles the company had gone ahead in perfect good
faith, and at that very time were hauling rails and track material
from Alta, and soon from Cisco, to Truckee (then called Coburn Station
on the old Emigrant Gap road), and had actually built the
railroad from Truckee down into Nevada and as far east as Wadsworth,
or a little beyond, before the tunnel at Summit was completed.

[Illustration: Automobiling along the Truckee River]

[Illustration: On the Automobile Boulevard Around Lake Tahoe]

[Illustration: Atlantic to Pacific Automobile Party, Premier Tour,
1911, Stopping at Tahoe Tavern]

[Illustration: Copyright 1910, by Harold A. Parker. Cascade Lake
and Mt. Tallac]

Thus in storm and stress was this road born, and in the winter time
of our day it is still a road of storm and stress, as are all of the
roads over the High Sierras. It must be remembered that while the
elevation at Sacramento is but thirty feet above sea level, at Summit
it is 7018 feet, and even at Truckee, where the turn is made for
Tahoe, it is 5819 feet. Naturally such high altitudes receive
considerable snow, which render the roads impassable during the winter
season. In 1914 I went from Truckee to the Summit on the 10th of June,
and save for two or three patches of snow which were rapidly melting,
there were no serious obstacles that any good motor could not
overcome.

FROM SACRAMENTO TO TAHOE ON THE EMIGRANT GAP AND DONNER LAKE ROUTE,
13