Page:Motoring Magazine and Motor Life July 1915.djvu/17

, 1915. way, however, on account of places not being smoothed, will make the journey uncomfortable for a time.

These sections of the great scenic wagon and automobile road have been built by the Newport Land and Construction Company from the proceeds of a $75,000 bond issue sold by Hood River County last year. This $75,000 for five miles of construction as compared with the $50,000 for the three-quarters of a mile around Mitchell’s Point, shows the extreme high cost of the latter. With 95 per cent or more of the $50,000 expended on a third of a mile, where the road will pass through solid rock, cuts or tunnel, and over one of the largest concrete viaducts on the highway, this construction work is as expensive as railroad work. The lines built up the Deschutes River are said to have been as expensive as any ever constructed in this portion of the United States, and the average cost per mile of the heavy rock excavation work there ranged around $60,000.

Crews of men are now engaged in digging more than 100 feet into the earth to bedrock for the concrete piers that will support the 200 feet long concrete viaduct. 90 feet above the O. W. R. & N. tracks. The viaduct is at the west end of the tunnel.

One of the most expensive points in Hood River County, leaving aside the Mitchell’s Point work, was at what the engineers have termed “the gateway,” where, just west of Lindsay Creek, a passage was blown through fairly solid rock. Formerly the rocky cliffs obstructed the view, but since the road has been opened a large slice has been taken out of the gorge side, and one is enabled to see for a long distance up the Columbia, and thus the name.

Fairly heavy work was also encountered west of Cascade Locks, as well as at Shell Rock Mountain, east of Wyeth. At both points the sides of the gorge are slowly sliding in toward the river. The trees just this side of the Multnomah County line, their trunks bowed, show the effects of the moving earth.

At Shell Rock the initial work on the Columbia Highway was done in 1912, when ex-Governor West, with a fund of $10,000, having been donated by S. Benson, detailed a party of honor men to construct the highway around the difficult point. The work of the convicts for the most part has been abandoned. The retaining walls constructed by these unskilled men in many cases have already fallen. The dry masonry of the new work is entirely of different construction, and will stand the onslaughts of the winter’s storms.

“The entire highway will be fairly passable by August 1st,” said J. A. Elliott, State Engineer in charge of the work. “Numbers of persons who have recently gone over the scenes of construction have advanced opinions that no motorcars could well travel the rough surface this year. However, the road to them probably looked like a house just before the carpenters left it. It no doubt seemed pretty badly mussed up, but the clearing away process will make a change appearances.”

Hood River people are eagerly awaiting date when the great completed scenic boulevard will be an actual reality and when the scores of long looked for automobiles will begin to pass through the orchard districts. Scores visit the Mitchell’s Point work, and invariably they return a hundred fold more enthusiastic than before the journey.

The expressions of gratitude for the philanthropy of S. Benson are unbounded, and discussions are often participated in as to what may be done to evidence most this respect and honor for the dean of Oregon’s good roads enthusiasts. A suggestion has been made by E. L. Smith, one of Hood River’s most distinguished and beloved citizens, and for many years a close friend of Mr. Benson, that has received much commendation. Mr. Smith proposes that the Hood River portion of the highway be officially known as the Benson section of the Columbia Highway, and that appropriate testimonial tablets be placed along the route.

—Sales of American autos in Venezuela have increased materially since the outbreak of the European war, despite unfavorable economic conditions due to prompt reduction of all Government salaries and the paucity of markets for exports. More than 90 per cent of the automobiles imported come through the port of La Guaira. From July, 1914, to March, 1915, both inclusive, only four European cars were imported, as compared with 97 new American cars.