Page:The Tourist's Northwest by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/39

 GENERAL INFORMATION 13 Short branches give access to Everett, via Snoqualmie Falls, and to Gray's Harbor and Willapa Harbor towns. The Bellingham and Northern Railway goes inland from the coast 44 miles to Glacier, nearest station to Mt. Baker. Another road allied with the continental system is the Seattle, Port Angeles and Western, which connects with Port Townsend, and parallels the Strait of Juan de Fuca, along the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula. To the tourist the most important of the short lines associated with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul in Washington is the Tacoma Eastern Railroad, which takes its way southward from Puget Sound beneath the shadow of Mt. Rainier, and terminates at Morton (67 m.) near the base of Mt. St. Helens. This is the only railway passing the gates of Rainier National Park, though a branch of the Northern Pacific leads to within 9 miles of the northwest entrance. Besides its main line from Portland to Seattle (183 m. = 6 1/2 hrs.), the Oregon - Washington Railroad and Navigation Company controls in Washington a branch 26 miles long from Megler, opposite Astoria, along North Beach to Nahcotta ; another from Centralia to Aberdeen and Hoquiam (57 m.), and a third from Attalia, on the road Portland - Spokane, to North Yakima (101 m.). A fourth branch joins Wallula to Walla Walla (31 m.). These two junction points are connected by several routes with Spokane, the shortest being the newly finished road via Ayer, Hooper and Marengo. Interurban electric trains unite all large cities of Washington with outlying towns and resorts. Many beautiful water journeys are afforded by steamers small and large, plying Puget Sound and