Great Salt Lake

[envelope]

Articles of the West, in the book which I am reading, has a number of trivia bits of information which I find interesting, and thought  I would pass another piece of information along to those interested.

 

On a vacation trip from the Midwest tothe West Coast, our travels took us throught Salt Lake City, so have some first hand viewing of some of the information intailed.   Of course the roadway on which we traveled in the early 1980s, was a modern 2 lane highway, but we could see, and follow the railroad right a way, which was a separate construction.

 

The lake itself is 60 to 90 miles long, depending on evaporation.   However, the "dike and trestle" of the railway is 26 miles in length.

 

The depth of the lake is from 15 to 30 feet.   Now, because of the density of the salt content, special "bottomed" shaped boats had to be used, as the normal "V"  bottom  construction, will not set deep enough in the salt water, and will capsize.    These boats were used to haul the "fill dirt" materials.

 

One of the problems in the constuction of the dike was basically for that of 'train travel' at that time. We are talking about  'horse and buggy' days.   So, prior to the "dike", the railroad had to navigate around the lake, which is of a 43 mile "detour".   That routing also required the trains to cross over the mountains, causing the engines to nearly "stall" by the time it reached the top.  If you remember the capabilities of the 1800s engines, you know the problem.

 

Construction was different, as the bottom of the lake was not of a normal soil.  The reason for it, was in centuries of old, it was an inland sea, until an outlet was carved by nature.  However, the time came when the lake was lower than the outlet, and hence doesn't have any outlet at the present. (Well, not at the time the book was written)

 

I mention that the solid bottom was different, as there is an initial layer of soft sand, then 1-2 feet of hard packed sand, on top of a 7 foot layer of harder compacked sada and salt.  The pilings for the trestle had to be driven by a "pile driver",  but once in place, the "soda and salt" minerals embedded the pilings, and hence were of a "concreted" fastenings" to this day.  (Well, at least when this book was written"

 

Now to have an adequate amount of "fill" material, it took from 6 to 12 train loads of fill a day, depending on the wind and wave action, as such materials had to be hauled by the special constructed boats.   But until some later date, more bill had to be used to widen the dike, to work against the wave action.  Eventually, the "soday and salt" combination of the wave action, concreted the surface of the material, and hence no more erosion. 

 

 

Thought maybe you railroad buffs might find this trivia of interest.

Excuse any sentence construction or spelling errors. 

[Gwizz]

The Salt lake is an intereting lake.  A few year back, with the RR dike cutting the lake in two parts, the amount of salt in the water on one side of the dike increased, on the other side it decreased.

This affected the companies that harvested salt.  Those with the added salt content found it easier to harvest salt for sale.   The companies on the other side of the dike went out of business.

 

Most of the river or creek water that runs into the lake, then crosses under the RR dike into the salter part of the lake where most of the extra water then vaporizes.

On the rare years when there is enough water to fill the lake, homes built too close to the lake, flood and the lake spills over into a river.

 

Boats were built for the lake but didn't last long.  The salty water eat up the engines and cause leaks.  Even then it was hard to sink anything in the salt water.

If I remember correctly the dike crossed a small island and when track gangs didn't get along, the RR sent the Chinese workers to the small island for their protection.

[envelope]

Well Gwizz,

That was a bit of information of which the article did not include, espeically that of the "salt damage to the boats, and that of the "protection of the Chinesse on that island".  I can well understand the circumstances in both situations.