USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > City of San Diego and San Diego County : the birthplace of California, Volume I > Part 23
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With the driving of a golden spike, the last put into the ties of the San Diego & Arizona Railway, John D. Spreckels, president of the line, on Nov. 15, 1919, brought to realization a dream which San Diego had cherished for many years. By this spike-driving the noted San Diegan also closed one of the most interesting chapters in the whole history of American railway building. For the building of this direct rail outlet to the East, making connection with the Southern Pacific lines and thus providing one of the shortest routes to the East, was accomplished only by dint of great perseverance and pluck on the part of its sponsor. It was on Dec. 14, 1906, that John D. Spreckels' morning newspaper, The San Diego Union, thrilled the city with the announcement that this railroad was to be built. Yet the task extended over nearly thirteen years and was attended by dis- couragements and setbacks which would have daunted most men. It is to be seriously doubted that the line would have been built-at least for a long time after it was actually finished-but for the persistent courage and never-ceasing faith of its builders, headed by Mr. Spreckels. The financial item alone is one of staggering importance. for to construct the 148 miles of line from San Diego to El Centro in Imperial Valley required a sum said to have been approximately $18,000,000. Yet other great factors entered into the problem, mak- ing it seem at times almost impossible of solution, except perhaps after long and disheartening delay. The railroad, however, was put through as have been most enterprises to which John D. Spreckels has set his shoulder.
It has developed since the plan of the San Diego & Arizona was announced that John D. Spreckels was not the originator of the road. Records of the courts in a dispute, happily settled, with the Southern Pacific Railway show that he was approached by men high in the councils of that great railway system to act in behalf of the Southern Pacific in building a line from San Diego across the mountains into Imperial Valley. The Southern Pacific, for reasons sufficient to its controlling interests, did not wish, at the time, to be identified with the project. To quote from an address made several years ago by William Clayton, vice president of the Spreckels companies in San Diego and always enjoying Mr. Spreckels' fullest confidence, "it was
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not possible for them (the Southern Pacific interests) to come in either under their own name or as some other small corporation with- out being suspected, but as long as Mr. Spreckels would announce his intention to build the road, it could be done without suspicion."
So Spreckels announced the plan. The news created one of the greatest real estate booms which San Diego ever had, but it was a "good" boom, based on actuality, and the city began to forge ahead rapidly. Few doubted Spreckels' ability to complete the task as he promised he would. Evidence of this is found in the columns of the San Diego Sun, then going under the merger name of the San Diegan-Sun, an independent newspaper which on occasion has fought the Spreckels interests in matters of public discussion. After the announcement was made, the Sun gave Spreckels credit "for secur- ing to San Diego what has long been San Diego's most urgent need- a railway direct to the East." Confidence also was expressed by the Sun's editor that Spreckels would carry the plan to success and called on the people of the city "to lift their hats to him." Smythe in his history, written just about the time the announcement was made, re- ferred to it as starting "a new epoch" .in San Diego.
The articles of incorporation of the San Diego & Arizona were drawn up June 14, 1906, although they were not filed until Dec. 14 of that year. The incorporators were John D. Spreckels, his brother, Adolph B. Spreckels. his son, John D. Spreckels, Jr., William Clay- ton, to whom reference already has been made, and Harry L. Titus, for years the highly trusted legal advisor of the Spreckels interests in San Diego.
Typical of President Spreckels was his generous announcement, soon after the papers were filed, that he would repay, dollar for dol- lar, the sum collected by those loyal San Diegans who had tried so valiantly before to put through a railroad under the name of the San Diego-Eastern. And the whole sum was paid back by him. He also announced the filing of condemnation suits to obtain rights-of-way in the city, instead of asking at the very start for a generous subsidy, as others had done before him.
Actual work on the railroad was started in a short time. Yet the task was monumental and progress was distressingly slow-or thus it seemed to the loyal but long-waiting people of San Diego. In 1911, for instance, it was announced to the world through a Chamber of Commerce booklet that sixty miles of grading had been done and fifty-five miles of track had been laid. But, impressive as those figures were, the road was far from being finished four years after it was begun.
E. H. Harriman, the great railroad wizard, was of course inter- ested in the work, but his most active interest seems to have been aroused no sooner than the spring of 1910, when he came to the Pacific coast in his private car and paid John D. Spreckels a visit at the latter's home in Coronado. Again to quote William Clayton :
"John D. and Mr. Harriman had a heart-to-heart talk. Mr. Harri- man took a liking to Mr. Spreckels and Mr. Spreckels took a liking to him, and they became fast friends. Mr. Harriman told Mr. Spreckels to go ahead, and he would stand behind the enterprise.
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Mr. Spreckels was to finish the road, and any pledges Mr. Spreckels made were to be cared for by the Southern Pacific and would be fully and completely redeemed. Mr. Spreckels went ahead. Then Mr. Harriman died. (That was on Sept. 9, 1909). A sudden change came over the policies of the Southern Pacific. They went back on Mr. Harriman's word and literally left Mr. Spreckels up in the air. He went on to New York to see the Southern Pacific. They seemed obdurate and disinclined to do anything. They refused to accept Mr. Harriman's pledges. As an outcome of this meeting a sort of agreement was entered into whereby Mr. Spreckels claims he had the right to take over the railroad within a period of twelve months under certain conditions."
The controlling forces in the Southern Pacific at the time, how- ever, contended that they had actually sold the road to Spreckels. The question was taken to the courts, and at last was settled to the satisfaction of all concerned-for the road was continued. But there was a long delay. At the completion of the line Mr. Spreckels himself threw light on this part of the affair when he told about the refusal of the Southern Pacific to go ahead with the Harriman plan. He had asked the new president of the Southern Pacific why he wanted to stop, and got this reply :
"For financial reasons ; money is tight, and we have a great ex- pense to make up for the roads along through Nevada."
Mr. Spreckels in his address then continued thus :
".Well,' I said, 'then let me do it.' and from that moment on I did it, and continued the building with such funds as I could spare from my business, and such funds as my brother aided me with.
"I continued the building of the road until we reached Campo. When that point was reached. there was a new change in the ad- ministration of the Southern Pacific and by the good effort of Mr. Kruttschnitt, Mr. Sproule and my good friend, Mr. Gillis, we then at that point formed a partnership to go ahead with it. and we agreed we would build a road jointly on a 50-50 basis. I realized that if the road was to be completed that was the best thing that could happen, as it would form a trans-continental line. something that otherwise might not ever have happened to the city of San Diego."
The outbreak of the Great War in Europe delayed progress on the road for a long time. Attempts to float bond issues abroad failed because capital was being diverted into war channels. But that was not all. Here may be quoted a section of an article which D. W. Pontius, then manager of the San Diego & Arizona, wrote for the Southern Pacific Bulletin of May, 1921 :
"Then after the United States entered the war. construction work on all railroads was stopped when the Federal Government took over the lines.
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"President Spreckels and representatives of the Southern Paci- fic Company took the matter up with Director General of the Rail- roads and with President Wilson, and owing to the importance of the line as a factor of protection when the country was at war- providing as it does, a transcontinental line adjacent to the border from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico, a direct avenue for supplies to the great army and naval bases at San Diego-it was released from Federal control and continued under construction dur- ing the entire period of the war. It is the only railroad in the United States which received such permission.
"The flood at San Diego in 1916 was another set back wash- ing out portions of the completed road, causing a loss of half a million dollars and interrupting the work.
"In completing the road many difficult engineering problems were encountered and solved. The Carriso Gorge, one of the scenic wonders of the line, presented puzzling difficulties. To build a railroad along its ragged edges had long been considered impossible, but was finally accomplished by blasting a broad and secure avenue on an easy gradient out of solid rock. The eleven mile stretch through this gorge cost $3,939,000 alone. A large amount of tunneling was made necessary in the construction of the road, and seventeen of the twenty-one tunnels on the line are located in Carriso Gorge. This success in construction is due to the engineering genius of William Hood, chief engineer of the Southern Pacific Company, who has thus added another notable achievement to his record, which includes the construction of the Tehachapi loop and the Lucin cut-off."
Certain other features of the road merit notice. It runs for 44 miles in Mexican territory, entering Mexico at Tijuana and cross- ing back into the United States near Tecate. There are 2.98 miles of tunnels on the San Diego & Arizona, the sum of $1,760,000 having been spent on that work alone. The longest of the tunnels is 2,604 feet long : the shortest is 287 feet long. A remarkable freedom from smoke and disagreeable fumes is noticed, however, by all travelers, as the tunnels are of large bore, and well ventilated and the atmosphere is light at that altitude. The highest and longest bridge on the line is the Campo Creek viaduct, which is 600 feet long, and 180 feet high. The highest point on the line is Hipass, whose elevation is 3,360 feet and the lowest is El Centro, 49 feet below sea level. At Redondo, Mexico, is a great double horseshoe curve, where the track can be seen on the mountain slope in three different elevations at one time.
It has been officially declared that the San Diego & Arizona Rail- wav, in connection with the Southern Pacific road, furnishes a route to the east 140 miles shorter than any other line running from Chicago to the Pacific coast. The railway has the lowest grades of any trans- continental line entering California, or any other Pacific coast state, from the East.
After the road was opened, the San Diego Union said :
"San Diego now becomes in reality the Pacific outlet for all the vast area of the Southwest, commercial tribute being paid the city
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by Southern California and especially Imperial Valley: Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The trade of the Orient and the West coast is now opened to San Diego to a greater and more comprehensive extent. Vast sums of money were expended on improvements to the harbor in anticipation of the S. D. & A."
As noted before. the actual completion of the San Diego & Ari- zona was marked by the driving of a golden spike. The ceremony was held in Carriso Gorge Nov. 15, 1919, and was attended by many residents of San Diego and Imperial counties. In the crowd that went from San Diego was many an old-timer who had waited long for such a day, whose hopes had been battered down by disappointment as plan after plan failed but who on this day wore a happy smile. marking his rejoicing that the dream had come true. President Spreckels of course was the central figure in the exercises, and before he stripped off his coat to drive the spike, he made a short talk in which he gave E. H. Harriman, "the biggest railroad man of the country," credit for originating the plan for the railway, told about his later difficulties with the Southern Pacific and their happy ending and gave in a few words his view of what the road meant to San Diego and Imperial Valley. Melville Klauber, then president of the Chamber of Commerce, presided and made an address of which this is part :
"You have seen the physical difficulties in the construction of this road, but Mr. Spreckels found other difficulties fully as great. They were difficulties that any other man would have found unsurmountable. This is really the 30th anniversary of the first attempt made to con- struct this railway. I read in a copy of The Union of 1871 that a meeting was called to vote $10,000 in bonds to build the railroad. They little realized what it all meant. This railroad today has cost many millions. It needed an unusual man, of unusual pluck and un- usual patience to put it through. We are not only here to celebrate the completion of the road, but to do honor in a simple way to the man who completed it. Others of San Diego who could not attend this celebration are here in spirit."
The first speaker was Mayor L. J. Wilde of San Diego, who referred to the occasion as a "wedding day." in which the Harbor of the Golden Sun and the great Imperial Valley were united. He also spoke a note which appealed to all his hearers when he said :
"I wish we could bring back some of the old-timers for this occasion, and refer with feeling to old, dear, respected Father Horton, to old Jesse Gilmore and some of the old-timers who struggled to raise the first $10.000 with which to build this road. I believe we should think a moment of the great man who assisted in the work which will be completed when Mr. Spreckels drives the golden spike. I mean Mr. Harry L. Titus, to whom we owe a deht of gratitude for the way he struggled and worked for the success of this great road."
Other speakers included Congressman William Kettner who said he was proud to live in such a "one-man town" as San Diego : Esteban
.
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Canti, governor of Lower California ; D. W. Pontius, general man- ager of the railway, and Frank Hevener, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Imperial Valley. E. J. Kallright, chief engineer of the line during construction, was cheered when the crowd got a view of the modest worker.
A pretty little ceremony took place at the Mexican town of Tecate, where President Spreckels left the train and was welcomed by the officials of that city. Juan Prieto Quemper, judge of the court at Tecate, was the speaker. In congratulating Mr. Spreckels and the people of San Diego on the completion of the new road he said :
"I rejoice myself in having the opportunity to welcome you; and why not, if opportunity is the great science of life? To grasp oppor- tunity means to be intelligent ; means to be aggressive ; means to be alive to possibilities, and you gentlemen, owners of this railroad, have done a great, transcendental and magnificent achievement, because you grasped the opportunity. You have made possible dreams of long ago : you have brought into realization hopes born and cherished at the warmth of civilization. Yours is a brotherly work, yours is a patriotic and noble impulse which will start a new era of development and betterment which will reach from one end of our country to the other. This date in which you are going to nail down the last spike on the San Diego & Arizona Railway will be hailed by the people of this community as a day never to be forgotten : young and old ones will ever think of it as a token of God, because we come nearer to you in a spirit of justice and fairness, and it equally brings you closer to us in a spirit of friendship and hope. Hope for the best, hope for new days to shine on your land and the land of ours. It is not chimerical to assume that the day is fast approaching when both the American and the Mexican people, knowing themselves better, will each have perfect confidence in the other.
"You are great, powerful and prosperous ; we are passing through a painful evolution of our life as a nation ; but we are supremely con- fident of our future, we have deep faith in our destiny and we firmly believe in better days. If God Almighty made us forever neighbors, let Him make us forever friends."
The following account of the elaborate celebration held Dec. 1 to Dec. 6. 1919, to mark the completion of the San Diego & Arizona is taken from an article in the San Diego Union of Jan. 1, 1920:
Transcontinental Railway Week from start to finish. Dec. 1 to 6, established for San Diego a new and even more brilliant record in wav of festival. It eclipsed even the glittering pageantry and cere- monies of exposition times. For six glorious days and nights the people of the Sun Harbor and Imperial Valley entered heart and soul into the most elaborate program of festivities that the Southland has ever seen. And in this they were joined by thousands of visitors from Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and many of the Eastern states.
Much of the credit for the success of the railway celebration, with its water carnival, floral parade, stadium events and other big
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features, went to Carl H. Heilbron, general chairman. Capably as- sisted by Vice-Chairman Duncan Mackinnon, G. A. Davidson, Frank J. Belcher, H. H. Jones, and scores of other willing workers, Mr. Heilbron worked night and day. Just how well he succeeded is a matter of record. Full share of the credit also is given those who helped him to overcome numerous obstacles and give to San Diego something of which it can well be proud.
Four days of fiesta were staged in San Diego-John D. Spreck- els Day, Harbor Day, Stadium Day and Balboa Park Day. Then the scene shifted to the great Imperial Valley, where for two days the people of the Inland Empire proved that they are equally talented as entertainers.
Through the celebration publicity bureau, headed by Sam Porter, proprietor of the San Diego Hotel, news of the approaching opening of San Diego's new transcontinental line and details of the big celebra- tion was spread boardcast. Almost every newspaper in the country carried stories, many with pictures. The magazines went to it hard, and the publications of Southern California, realizing that it was a big story and an equally big event, literally ate up the matter furn- ished them. The San Francisco Chronicle published a special section descriptive of the new railway, the celebration and San Diego in general.
The wonderful enthusiasm of the people had also much to do with the success of Transcontinental Railway Week. It was an event for which San Diego had waited for half a century, and when the dream of the people was at last realized, they went wild with joy. Never before did the people of the city get together and co-operate more fully in any undertaking.
Transcontinental Railway Week was officially opened with the arrival of the first through train from El Centro, Imperial Valley, on the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 1. At that hour the city was over- flowing with visitors, and almost every man, woman and child in San Diego was out to see the big doings. The business district was beautifully decorated. Broadway, from Sixth Street to the Union station, was jammed with merrymakers.
The demonstration when the train rolled up to the station was one that will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. The event was accepted by all as the most imporant in the history of the city. Old-timers, who had prayed for a transcontinental railroad dur- ing the long years, wept from joy.
Aboard this train was John D. Spreckels, president and builder of the new railway, and on the station platform to. greet him was Governor William D. Stephens of California. President Spreckels was given a rousing ovation, and many crowded forward to grasp his hand.
With President Spreckels on the first train from El Centro was Governor Thomas E. Campbell of Arizona and many prominent rail- road men. A large Imperial Valley delegation also came over on this train. Among the distinguished men at the station to greet the builder were Mayor James Rolph of San Francisco, Brig .- Gen. Joseph H. Pendleton, Admiral Hugh Rodman, commander of the Pacific
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Fleet ; Admiral Hugh Wiley, Gen. Joseph E. Kuhn, commander at Camp Kearny ; Hon. W. R. Armstrong, representing Governor Simon Bamberger of Utah : Mayor L. J. Wilde, and many others.
After the movie cameras of a dozen national weekly companies had been leveled on the distinguished men and women in the party, a great parade was formed, traversing the principal streets and dis- banding at Balboa Park, where exercises were conducted at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. Here each of the visiting dignitaries ex- tended congratulations to Mr. Spreckels and to San Diego. On the evening of that day an elaborate banquet was tendered President Spreckels and the distinguished guests at the Hotel del Coronado. There were many speeches. Lyman J. Gage acted as toastmaster.
Then came Harbor Day, Tuesday, Dec. 2, a day set aside to exemplify the value of San Diego's superb land-locked harbor as an outlet for the new railroad. The afternoon was devoted to water sports, in which all the aquatic clubs of the city participated, and at night a great water carnival and naval display was held. Superbly illuminated and with their flash lights and signal lights playing over the waters of the bay and upon the city, the 71 warships, at anchor in the harbor, played a leading part in the spectacle. Among these ships were the superdreadnaughts New Mexico, Idaho and Mississippi, and the Australian battle cruiser New Zealand. It was the most form- idable array of fighting ships ever mobilized in Pacific waters.
Next came Stadium Day. Celebrated with athletic events of all kinds in the city's big $150,000 stadium, it constituted one of the most popular features of the celebration. The army and navy figured pro- minently. So did all the athletic organizations of the city. A series of chariot races, recalling the days of ancient Rome, thrilled the thousands of spectators.
Balboa Park Day, Dec. 4, closed the San Diego end of the cele- bration. Held in the 1,400-acre municipal park, where partically all of the beautiful exposition buildings are still intact, and where the flowers and foliage are more beautiful than in 1915, this part of the program, despite a persistent rain, scored a real hit. Thousands spent the entire day in the park. There were organ resitals on the great Spreckels pipe organ, community singing, band concerts, rendi- tions by famous soloists, an old-timers' picnic, and many other attrac- tions. On that evening a gay crowd enjoyed a carnival and dance on the downtown streets.
Nearly 500 San Diegans boarded the special train for the In- perial Valley on the following morning. It was a great trip over the new line, and all marveled at the wonders of the scenery. In the valley all the cities were visited. Governor William D. Stephens, John D. Spreckels, Brig .- Gen. Joseph H. Pendleton, Mayor L. J. Wilde and other prominent men marched at the head of the parade in each town. Mr. Spreckels addressed crowds in every city and was loudly cheered.
Transcontinental Week closed at El Centro with a great barbecue, at which 20,000 persons were fed. San Diegans and Valleyites thus formed a friendship which will mean much in the future development of both regions. The Valley people predicted big things for Valley and Harbor, at last connected with rails of steel.
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A distinctive feature of the San Diego & Arizona Railway is its solid construction. No expense, apparently, was spared to make the roadbed as heavy as practicable and as safe as possible. To this end and to obtain easy grades and as easy curves as obtainable, numerous costly fills and cuts were made and tunnels constructed. Such has been the policy of the road since its beginning.
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CHAPTER XV
THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS
In the period extending over the last fifteen years San Diego has made her greatest material development. In that time the port of San Diego has become a great naval base and remarkable gains have been recorded in other directions. Postoffice receipts in 1906, for instance, were only a little more than $74,000; in 1920 they had grown to $415,000, the high water mark of $584,000 in the fifteen-year period having been reached in 1918, when the city contained a large number of men training for the war. Bank deposits in 1906 were slightly under $7,000,000; by 1920 they had grown to more than $43,000,000. The greatest period of new building so far recorded was in 1912, when the total number of permits was 4,559 and their value was stated as more than, $10,000,000, that high figure being swelled materially, of course, by the construction of the great group of Exposition buildings in Balboa Park. The school census in 1906 showed only 4,379 pupils in the city schools; the number had grown in 1920 to 16,705-practically quadrupled. Water consumers in the city increased in the same time from 5,072 to 16,385. The growth indicated by these few figures has been steady, each year, with slight exceptions, bringing an increase over the one just preceding ; in only one year, 1913, did the bank deposits of San Diego fail to show a gain over the year before. This is certainly a record which is surpassed by few communities anywhere in the United States.
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