This is a piece that largely ignores the political gamesmanship and extraneous riggamarole - for once - to focus instead on the physical challenges of building the southern section of the proposed California high speed rail route; from Bakersfield to Los Angeles.
http://www.latimes.c...0,4082877.story
Bullet-train planners face huge engineering challenge
"Civil War veteran William Hood arrived at the mosquito-infested swamps near Bakersfield in 1874 to build a rail line that would soar through the Tehachapi Mountains, linking the Bay Area and Southern California for the first time.
"Hood, Southern Pacific Railroad's chief assistant engineer, assembled 3,000 Chinese immigrants with picks, shovels and dynamite. They snaked the track up treacherous mountain ridges, twisted it back and forth around canyons and punched it through sheer rock in a series of 18 tunnels — climbing 4,025 vertical feet along the way.
"It's a feat no one has attempted to duplicate. Until now."
_______
"The sheer scale and scope of the bullet train's push into Southern California, including traversing complex seismic hazards, would rival construction of the state's massive freeway system, water transport networks and its port complexes. It is likely to be viewed in future decades as an engineering marvel — or a costly folly. If nothing else, it is ambitious."
The print edition includes a couple fine photos of freight trains snaking through the Tehachapi mountains that unfortunately are not replicated online.
http://www.latimes.c...0,4082877.story
Bullet-train planners face huge engineering challenge
"Civil War veteran William Hood arrived at the mosquito-infested swamps near Bakersfield in 1874 to build a rail line that would soar through the Tehachapi Mountains, linking the Bay Area and Southern California for the first time.
"Hood, Southern Pacific Railroad's chief assistant engineer, assembled 3,000 Chinese immigrants with picks, shovels and dynamite. They snaked the track up treacherous mountain ridges, twisted it back and forth around canyons and punched it through sheer rock in a series of 18 tunnels — climbing 4,025 vertical feet along the way.
"It's a feat no one has attempted to duplicate. Until now."
_______
"The sheer scale and scope of the bullet train's push into Southern California, including traversing complex seismic hazards, would rival construction of the state's massive freeway system, water transport networks and its port complexes. It is likely to be viewed in future decades as an engineering marvel — or a costly folly. If nothing else, it is ambitious."
The print edition includes a couple fine photos of freight trains snaking through the Tehachapi mountains that unfortunately are not replicated online.
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