USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > City of San Diego and San Diego County : the birthplace of California, Volume I > Part 22
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Of those living in San Diego today there is probably no man who was more closely in touch with the dealings of San Diegans and the Santa Fe Railroad than is Judge M. A. Luce, well known citizen and attorney, to whom reference has been made. He was one of the organizers of the California Southern, by which San Diego ob- tained a connection with the Atlantic & Pacific line, and served for several years as vice-president and general counsel of that company. Moreover, before the California Southern was formed, he had lived in San Diego for about seven years and had not only seen the failure of the Tom Scott project but had been in close touch with the pre- liminary negotiations with the Santa Fe officials.
In a recent conversation with the writer Judge Luce gave the following interesting account of the California Southern and Santa Fe matters :
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"The California Southern was organized in the fall of 1880 to build directly north to meet the Atlantic & Pacific. It was completed to Barstow in December, 1885. All of the subsidies which the people of San Diego gave for the new railroad were given to the California Southern-a matter of some interest in itself. These lands later were transferred to the Land and Town Company. For a long time the Santa Fe ran trains to and from San Diego by lease of the California Southern, as the Santa Fe at that time did not own the line. The road, as is well known, was built first up through the Temecula Can- yon, going through Murrietta, Perris and Colton to San Bernardino. leaving Riverside about two and a half miles from the road. At the request of Riverside, which naturally wanted to be on the line of the new road, another survey was made to carry out Riverside's purpose of getting on the line. In connection with this plan the people of Riverside gave a banquet to which president Nickerson was invited as guest of honor, and I also was there. I recall that they displayed in a striking manner samples of the fruits which are grown in that sec- tion-oranges, lemons and so on-and their speakers declared that Riverside was the only big producing region in Southern California. Mr. Nickerson made a nice little speech in reply, talking in a kindly way, but declared that he would not swerve the line of the road by so much as a mile for all the products of Southern California. I men- tion this matter to make it plain that his purpose in having this road built was to furnish a connection by which he could carry out plans he had made for extensive international trade. He intended to have here wharves and depots from which three steamship lines would go on three routes, namely, to South America, the Hawaiian Islands, and to Yokohama and Hong Kong. Some have thought it peculiar that he made such elaborate plans for international commerce, but it must be remembered that Nickerson was a shipper and had made much money in that way. Then, too, it must be remembered that at that time coal was being mined very cheaply in Australia ; it was delivered at the wharves in Sydney at about a dollar and a half a ton. One of his plans, for instance, was to bring that coal to San Diego and to carry goods from San Diego to Australia. That is just an example of how he had worked out his plans. Another matter which must be considered is the cheapness of coal in the United States at that time. For that reason Nickerson did not care much for heavy grades on the Santa Fe line ; heavy grades and consequent consumption of extra fuel did not mean so much in those days as it would mean now. That is a point which I have found is not commonly understood by those who refer to that period.
"In accordance with these elaborate plans, plans were laid out for great warehouses and terminals and wharves. The failure came from the great financial break of 1892 and 1893. The whole San Diego plan was abandoned and the road was turned back into a combination with the Southern Pacific.
"The Santa Fe plan, as it affected San Diego, really failed as the Tom Scott plan had failed, because of financial storms. Why. when I came here in 1873 they were grading ten miles of road for the Texas & Pacific connection, and it looked very much for a time as if the Scott plan would succeed, but that was stopped by the financial
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disaster which affected the whole world at the time. These matters were such as San Diego could not foresee or control.
"The new men in the Santa Fe as directors did not carry out the plans which Nickerson had made, and in the course of time they moved the shops from National City to San Bernardino and really made Los Angeles the terminal, at least for Southern California."
Before John D. Spreckels announced that he would build the San Diego & Arizona Railway San Diego made another effort, extending over several years, to provide a direct rail outlet to the East. That took form in the organization of the San Diego-Eastern Railway Com- pany. This movement was started in the Chamber of Commerce, which appointed a railway committee, headed by George W. Marston, who for many years has been in the very forefront of every organized attempt to advance the interests of the city. That committee, styled the San-Diego Eastern Railway Committee, issued a statement of its purposes and an appeal to the public on July 20, 1901. This state- ment was summarized as follows:
"To the people of San Diego City and County :
"The San Diego-Eastern Railway Committee in response to the demand of the Chamber of Commerce and citizens generally, having given full consideration to the subject in hand, submits the following plan :
"First, to project surveys sufficient to determine the best route for the railroad from San Diego Bay to some point on the Colorado River.
"Second, to secure terminal facilities.
"Third, to secure rights of way and other necessary privileges along the lines of such route.
"Fourth, to secure the services of a competent chief engineer whose duties shall be to indicate the kind of route required to meet the highest demand of a first-class modern system and prepare de- tailed estimates concerning the cost of construction, equipment and operation of such line.
"Fifth, to secure all possible data and exact information for a prospectus which shall duly set forth the reasons why such a road should be undertaken without delay and shall make to capital an appeal in behalf of the project, absolutely convincing.
"Sixth, to secure the necessary subscriptions to carry out the work as outlined above."
One of the principal movers in the plan was Major S. W. Fer- gusson, who had taken a large part in the colonization of Imperial Vallev. This great inland empire, watered by the "Nile of America", the Colorado River, was then in its infancy, but the vast possibilities of the section as an agricultural treasure ground were about to unfold, and Fergusson and other far-sighted men of the time had become convinced of its coming greatness. He was made general manager of the Chamber's committee. Other members of the committee were L. L. Boone, well known attorney, who was secretary : U. S. Grant, Tr., who later built the U. S. Grant Hotel in San Diego; John E.
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Boal, superintendent of the San Diego Land and Town Company ; F. S. Jennings, head of an investment company bearing his name, and W. F. Holt of Imperial Valley.
The following seven directors are named in the incorporation papers : George W. Marston, U. S. Grant, Jr., H. P. Wood, Charles N. Clark, John E. Boal. L. L. Boone and E. S. Babcock. A later list included also G. W. Fishburn, Julius Wangenheim and Homer H. Peters. At that time the officers were George W. Marston, president ; John E. Boal, vice-president : L. L. Boone, secretary, and George W. Fishburn, treasurer.
The general plan. as outlined in the beginning, was to build a railway from San Diego to Fort Yuma, Arizona, following, roughly speaking, the lines laid down in various projects and surveys that had been made in the years preceding. Surveys were made by H. T. Richards, chief engineer, with H. Hawgood as consulting engineer, and when three years had elapsed it was announced that a line had been "carefully and completely surveyed" to Yuma. The company then made this statement :
"About thirty miles of this line has been permanently located and is now practically ready for grading. A careful preliminary line has been run from Fort Yuma through Southern Arizona to the town of Fairbanks near the present western terminus of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad and also to Benson on the same line.
"These surveys have brought realization to our most hopeful expectations, as they have demonstrated beyond question not only the feasibility and practicability, but also the superiority of this trans- continental line over all the others now constructed, from the stand- point of its shortness, low altitude at which it crosses the mountain ranges and consequent low gradient, favorable curvature and cheap- ness of construction and maintenance, as very fully appears from our engineer's reports.
"A striking illustration of this superiority may be had when one compares the cost of this line with that of, the Union Pacific, which is capitalized for over $100,000 per mile.
"The amount of the capitalization of forty miles of that road would build and equip our line, in an equally substantial manner. from the bay of San Diego to the Colorado River, while the amount of the capitalization of 140 miles of that line would build and equip our line to the town of Fairbanks. Arizona, to a connection with the El Paso and Southwestern, a distance of nearly 500 miles.
"We have secured by purchase, or contract, the right of way over almost the entire line to the Colorado River, and have pur- chased, paid for, and now own thirty acres of land and many town lots near the bay, and along our right of way, within the city of San Diego, most eligible and suitable for shops, vards, terminal grounds, warehouses, etc., and have options to purchase 100 acres more.
"We have a franchise through the entire city of San Diego, and extending for over three miles along the most desirable bay frontage. giving us the most ample and favorable facilities for wharfage and shipping.
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"We have a corporation formed under the laws of California, for the building of this line, capitalized for $10,000,000."
The booklet in which this statement is made contains such a good picture of San Diego of twenty years ago that it is well worth reproducing :
"San Diego, with a population of 25,000, ranks as the second city of Southern California. Located at a distance of 126 miles from Los Angeles, and, like the latter, a favorite spot with Eastern tourists, it enjoys many of the improvements and facilities not usually to be found in a city of its size. It has an extensive system of street railways, connecting the residence sections with the business centre, with the ferry to Coronado, and with the depots of the Santa Fe system, and the various suburban railways. Additional franchises have been granted, and several new lines are under construction. The hotel facilities are most extensive and very superior, especially when it is considered that the famous Coronado is within thirty minutes' ride of the business centre. There are over sixty-five miles of graded. nearly four miles of asphalt paved and a considerable length of macad- amized streets. There is a good system of sewerage, with about forty miles of pipe. The extensive water plant is now owned by the city. School accommodations are ample and of the best. The high school occupies a commanding site overlooking the town.
"There is a well equipped library housed in a large and beautiful building, erected at a cost of $60,000, occupying beautiful grounds. As the seat of one of the largest counties in California, the city has public buildings of superior character. One of the finest normal schools in the state is also located here in a building of unusual archi- tectural beauty. The comfort and attractiveness of its many homes, due in part to the presence of wealthy people, drawn here by the charming climate, has given to San Diego the name of 'Homeland' a distinction to which it is well entitled."
Naturally, there was no thought on the part of those working for the new railroad project that the line could be built by San Diegans alone. Their plan was to make preliminary surveys, obtain certain rights of way and then appeal to the great railway financiers of the nation in the hope of getting some man or group of men to take the plan up and finish the work. To carry on the preliminary work a sum of about $40,000-no inconsiderable sum for San Diego to contribute in those days-was raised. Many citizens gave com- paratively large sums, but a lot of small contributions, pleasing evi- dence of the unshaken faith of the people in the plan, were made. In all there were some 800 contributors. The directors of the rail- way gave loyally and unsparingly of time, money and effort to interest financiers and railway builders in the project. Mr. Marston and Mr. Boone made several trips to New York and other cities of the East and carried eloquent appeals to the great railroad men of that time, among them Phelps. Dodge & Co., George J. Gould and E. H. Harri- man of the Southern Pacific. They were all interested, but none of them could take up the enterprise then. The time was not ripe, some said. It was evident that others who might have helped were so bound by certain agreements that they could not aid. Mr. Marston
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recently related to the writer an amusing incident which grew out of a conference which he and Secretary Boone had with Cleveland Dodge of Phelps, Dodge & Co. The little San Diego road had been some- what impressively capitalized for $10,000,000, but only $217,000 had actually been subscribed. The great railway magnate, having talked with his San Diego visitors for a few minutes, and expressing great interest in the plan, suggested that some knowledge which he had of the steel market would aid the San Diegans in their railway building. Steel, he said, was going to rise in price, and now was a good time to buy steel rails for that new road. Mr. Marston and Mr. Boone, knowing they had not the money available to equip even ten miles of the line with rails, nevertheless held straight faces and expressed keen interest in the "tip". But after they returned to their hotel rooms they had a laugh which sent them rolling on their beds for relief.
The San Diego project was enlarged on paper, in the course of time, to include a line clear through from San Diego to El Paso, and a statement of what could be expected of a railway running between the two cities was drawn up and presented to at least one railway magnate. Although it bore no immediate fruits, it contains such a clear and interesting summary of the railroad situation as affecting San Diego that space may well be given to it. The statement was furnished to the writer recently by Mr. Marston, who throughout the life of the San Diego-Eastern Company was naturally in close touch at all times with what that company tried to do. It is as follows :
1. El Paso is the terminus of five important railroads, viz., the Santa Fe, Rock Island, Texas & Pacific, Southern Pacific and Mex- ican Central. The St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad is also being built toward El Paso. From El Paso there is only one railroad, the Southern Pacific, running directly westward to the Pacific coast. This road is doing an enormous business, and present traffic alone justifies another line.
2. San Diego is the nearest Pacific port to El Paso, the distance being about 750 miles, a less distance than El Paso is from Galveston in its own state. By the proposed San Diego-Eastern Railroad the mileage from El Paso to San Diego will be 100 miles less than to San Pedro, the port used by Los Angeles. It is even a less distance to San Francisco by way of San Diego harbor, using steamer con- nection at San Diego, than it is by rail from El Paso to San Fran- cisco over the Southern Pacific. It can be easily demonstrated that freight transportation between San Francisco and El Paso will cost less per ton via San Diego than by any other route. It naturally follows that the short line advantages of the San Diego railroad ap- ply particularly to the whole southwest country that is covered by the railroads terminating at El Paso, and also in a large measure to general transcontinental traffic from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
3. San Diego has a safe, capacious harbor that is adequate for the largest commerce. Its natural advantages are now being im- proved by the United States Government with an expenditure of $267,000. Before the end of the year the depth of water over the
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bar will admit vessels of 30,foot draught at mean low tide (this work had been accomplished in November, 1903), and the new jetty is expected to maintain this ample depth. The port is only 116 miles from the great circle route that ships would take from Brito or Panama to Yokohama, and on the completion of the isthmian canal this will be of great commercial importance. In general, the harbor of San Diego is recognized as the natural shipping point for an im- mense commerce. Even under adverse conditions the imports and exports for the year 1900 amounted to four million dollars valuation.
4. A thorough railroad survey from San Diego to Yuma, and a careful reconnaissance from Yuma to Tucson and Benson, Arizona, have demonstrated very clearly that the proposed short line from San Diego directly eastward is not only practicable, but that it is a better one physically than any of the existing lines that enter Cali- fornia. For more detailed information, reference may be made to a "Summary of the Survey of the San Diego-Eastern Railway", which the San Diego committee has prepared.
5. The opportunity herewith presented for profitable freight business is very unusual. The possibilities of transcontinental traffic in connection with steamship lines to the Orient can hardly be estimated, but any conservative consideration will satisfy one of the immense business that can be secured. Undoubtedly a large share of Central California business will come to the new railroad, owing to cheap water transportation along the coast. as compared to the costly rail- road haul between San Francisco and Yuma, a distance of 730 miles. Mexican and South American business will certainly be done through the port of San Diego, as both water and land distances are shorter for traffic interchange between points south of San Diego on the Pacific and the large cities of the West and Southwest. Thousands of tons of ores for Colorado smelters, and great quantities of coffee for the Middle West are now carried past this port to San Francisco, owing to the lack of railroad and steamship co-operation. For South- eastern Arizona business, San Diego is the natural western connection. The largest item of freight would be lumber, which can be handled more cheaply through this port than anywhere else. The Southern Pacific is carrying annually about 6,000 carloads of Puget Sound lumber to Arizona, all of which goes via San Pedro now. Phoenix, Tucson, Bisbee, Yuma and other Arizona cities would welcome a short railroad line to San Diego and have business to offer.
Colorado Delta traffic is all tributary to San Diego, and the most fertile part of it lies in San Diego County (that was before Imperial County was formed) and in Lower California south of San Diego County. This county is now 298 miles by rail from San Diego City, and the new road would bring it 150 miles nearer. The amazing development of the Imperial Valley will alone justify the building of the California part of the proposed road. Within three years 4,000 people have settled in the valley : production of grain and live- stock has risen from nothing in 1901 to 10.000 tons in 1903: and the estimate for 1904 in 40,000 tons. The water supply from the Colo- rado is ample for millions of acres, and the Imperial companies alone have 300,000 acres of irrigable land. As only a tenth of this is yet under cultivation, the increase of production will be enormous.
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6. San Diego is a city of 25,000 people and is growing rapidly. Its local railroad business makes the California Southern railroad line from Los Angeles to this point one of the most profitable lines on the Santa Fe system. The county produces more lemons and honey than any other in California : general agricultural conditions are good this year : 50,000 tons of grain ( including Imperial Valley) have been produced ; industries are improving, and all kinds of mercantile busi- ness growing. The United States Government is expending about a million dollars in fortifications, barracks, quarantine station, roads and harbor improvements. Every year adds to the material re- sources and traffic business of San Diego city and county.
7. The passenger business of the San Diego-Eastern Railroad would be vastly larger than on ordinary lines in the western interior. San Diego is an unrivalled tourist and health resort in both summer and winter. With all its present adverse conditions in respect to railroads, it attracts thousands of travelers here each season. Three thousand people were at Tent City, Coronado Beach, at one time during the present summer, and direct railroad connection with Ari- zona would add immensely to summer travel. Transcontinental pass- enger business would of course be very large, tourists naturally pre- ferring to begin their Southern California travel at the most southern point.
8. Looking at the proposition in a large, general way, it is very evident that a modern railway from El Paso to San Diego, being 100 miles shorter than the Southern Pacific to its ocean terminals and built under a bond issue perhaps one-half that of its competitor, would easily take the lead in economy of operation and profitable results.
Among those to whom an appeal was made was John D. Spreckels, whose interest in San Diego had been aroused. F. S. Jennings was selected to confer confidentially with him, but Mr. Spreckels was not ready then to announce his plans, which later gave the San Diego & Arizona to San Diego. Nor was Mr. Harriman of the Southern Pacific ready to aid. But in December, 1906, the San Diego & Arizona announcement was made, and it later developed, through announcement by Mr. Spreckels, that the great head of the Southern Pacific was his partner in the enterprise.
When the plans for the new lines had been made, the San Diego & Arizona took over the entire holdings of the San Diego-Eastern and Mr. Spreckels sent to Mr. Marston a check covering the amount of the fund which had been subscribed by San Diego people.
At one time the San Diego-Eastern plan had been worked through to such an extent that a third interest had been taken, or was about to be taken, by each of two well known men heavily interested in railroad building and the San Diego-Eastern directors tried to get Mr. Spreckels to take the remaining third. Mr. Spreckels held off, however, and Mr. Harriman although he came here to see the city and its possibilities, also declined to give a definite answer. When he arrived in San Diego, Chief Engineer Richards of the San Diego- Eastern was out of town, engaged in field work for the road. and by the time he was brought in to give. engineering information which the directors wished to give Mr. Harriman, the great railroad man
JOHN D. SPRECKELS DRIVING THE GOLDEN SPIKE TO MARK THE COM- PLETION OF THE SAN DIEGO & ARIZONA RAILWAY
At his right are William Kettner, then Congressman, and Louis J. Wilde, then Mayor of San Diego. Behind him stands Read G. Dilworth, General Counsel of the Spreckels companies. Prominent figures at his left are E. J. Kallright, engineer in charge of con- struction, and D. W. Pontius, then general manager of the road, who has been suc- ceeded by A. T. Mercier.
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had gone to Santa Barbara. Secretary Boone and Engineer Richards went on after him later, but accomplished nothing, although the San Diego-Eastern plans were laid before the Southern Pacific's engineer at San Francisco at about that time.
At all times in the history of the San Diego-Eastern, to which in no small degree is due the credit for bringing the San Diego & Arizona to San Diego, the people of the city took keen interest in what was going on, or in what they could learn of the various negotia- tions, and the various visits which the officers of the road made to interview great railway men were watched closely. At various times this interest was impatient, as San Diego wanted the direct road to the East and wanted it quickly, and this impatience even took the form of suggestions that actual construction ought to be started at once ; those suggestions, or demands, of course, were based on mis- information as to the money necessary for such work and as to how little the company actually had to spend.
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