The completion of the Great Pacific Railroad May 10,1869, was the grandest event of the nineteenth century. Its length, exclusive of branches, is over 2,000 miles, and crosses nine distinct mountain ranges, which are tunneled in several places; also, many wonderful bridges were built, spanning chasms of fearful and precipitous depth. This great enterprise was begun in 1862, and completed in 1869. It was built by two separate companies; the eastern portion by the Union Pacific Company, which built the road to Ogden, and the western part by the Central Pacific Company, which built it from San Francisco to that point. As the distance between them grew shorter, the competition and excitement grew more intense. About 25,000 men and 6,000 teams were employed along the route, and as they neared the point of junction every nerve was stretched, and the excitement almost equaled in intensity a race between continental giants. The eyes of the whole continent were fixed upon them, and their daily progress was reported over the wires, until, when the eventful 10th of May arrived, and the last rail was laid, and the last spike driven, thousands of anxious listeners were waiting at each end of the route for the signal when the last blow should be struck. There they stood, and could the wonderful telephone have had a development sufficient to have reverberated the sounds of the falling hammer, the picture would have been complete. But in their ignorance of this amazing and subsequent stride of science, they attached the wires to the last rail, that each blow of the sledge should be recorded on every connecting telegraph instrument between. San Francisco and Portland, Me. Indeed, from Boston to New Orleans the wires were held in readiness to receive not only the message "done," but the very echo or vibration from the falling hammer. In San Francisco a telegraph wire was attached to a fifteen-inch gun; also to all the fire-bells in the city, which were rung simultaneously with the firing of the gun by electricity. All business in the city was suspended, and all classes united in a grand celebration. All over the State of California the excitement was at fever heat. In New York and "Washington the interest was intense. Chicago celebrated the event on a magnificent scale; the procession was very unique, and was over four miles long. The road from Omaha to San Francisco cost $165,000,000, and required 110,000 tons of iron rails, 1,000,000 fish plates, 2,000,000 bolts, 15,000,000 spikes, 3,500,000 cross-ties, besides millions of feet of timber not estimated, for the construction of bridges, culverts, and roads. By means of this wonderful highway the distance from New York, to San Francisco was reduced to seven days' travel; from New York to Japan twenty-five days.