Amtrak vs EuroStar

[zephyr17]

In many respects, the challenge to building a railroad coming east across the Sierras was greater than through the Rockies. From Sacramento, basically at sea level, to Donner Pass, is a climb of over 7000', all of it in mountains. There are no ways around the mountains unless you go way to the south. Hats off to the people who laid out those routes without the benefit of USGS topo maps, LiDAR surveys, and GPS.

Specifically, hats off the Theodore Judah, who surveyed and laid out the route over Donner Pass, but unfortunately died of a fever contracted in Panama returning from the east coast before the Central Pacific was constructed on his survey. He not only surveyed the route, he was instrumental in convincing both Congress and financiers that the route was practical.