Читать книгу Oregon, the Picturesque. A Book of Rambles in the Oregon Country and in the Wilds of Northern California онлайн

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In each instance we passed the night at Sacramento, which is the best starting point for the day’s run to Tahoe, being about one hundred and twenty miles distant by either route. We were sure of every comfort and convenience here—there are a dozen hotels ranging from good-enough to first-class—and our repeated visits had given us more and more of a liking for Sacramento. It is a clean, beautiful city, practically a seaport, so deep and broad is its mighty tide-water river, which carries a yearly commerce, incoming and outgoing, of an aggregate value of more than fifty million dollars. The surrounding country is very fertile, with greatly varied agricultural and fruit-growing resources which form the basis of the city’s prosperity and assure its future. Its streets and private and public buildings have a truly metropolitan appearance which in the east would indicate a city of much more than fifty or sixty thousand population. The Capitol building, a white marble structure of purely classic lines, stands in a beautiful semi-tropic park of about forty acres. This is beautified with endless varieties of shrubs and trees, among them palms of many species, for the climate is such that orange groves, olives and almonds flourish quite as vigorously as in Southern California. The oranges ripen here from six weeks to two months earlier than in the south, giving the growers the advantage of early markets, and the quality of the fruit is equal to the best. Surrounding the city are endless orchards of peach, pear, prune, apricot, cherry, and many other varieties of fruit trees; and there are extensive vineyards of both wine and table grapes. Dairying, stock-raising, gardening, as well as other branches of farming are carried on—very profitably, if one may judge by appearances. Manufacturing is also done on a considerable scale in the city and vicinity and gold mining in the county is an industry producing about two millions annually. All of which would seem to indicate that Sacramento has not yet reached the zenith of its growth and prosperity. It is favorably situated as to railroads, having a service of three transcontinental lines since the Santa Fe has leased right of way over the Western Pacific. The new state highway enters the city from north and south and a direct route has been opened to San Francisco by the completion of the great Yolo Trestle, shortening the distance by wagon road—thirty miles less than via Stockton and Altamont, formerly the standard route. This great engineering feat bridges the Yolo basin, which is flooded during several months of the year, with a solid concrete causeway twenty-one feet wide and over three miles long, carried on re-enforced concrete piles rising twenty feet above ground. It was completed in about eighteen months and cost a little under four hundred thousand dollars. We ran over it on our last trip to Sacramento and it seemed like a fairy tale indeed to be bowling along twenty feet above the formerly impassable marsh as safely and smoothly as upon an asphalted city boulevard. In addition to the state highway, Sacramento County already has many miles of good road of her own construction, but she is planning still larger things in the immediate future. A highway bond issue of two million dollars was authorized late in 1916 by a majority of nearly four to one, emphatically proving the enlightenment of the citizens of the county on the question of improved roads. The proceeds of this issue will improve practically all the main highways and make Sacramento County one of the favorite touring grounds of the state.