bridge over the Willamette river, and erect depot buildings on the west side.[1] These drawbacks to the perfection of railroad service were removed, so far as a bridge is concerned, in June 1888, when the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company completed one, which was followed soon after by the erection of the present union depôt.
In the meantime two important changes took place in the railway system of the state. Negotiations had been for three years pending for the purchase of the bankrupt Oregon and California railroad, which were renewed in January 1887. The terms of the proposed agreement were, in effect, that the first mortgage bond-holders[2] should be paid at the rate of 110 for their new forty-years' gold five percent bonds, guaranteed principal and interest, by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California, together with four pounds in cash for each old bond; the new bonds to be issued at the rate of $30,000 per mile, and secured by a new mortgage, equivalent in point of lien and priority to the first mortgage, and bearing interest from July 1, 1886. Preferred stockholders would receive one share of Central Pacific, together with four shillings sterling for each preferred share,
and common stockholders one share of Central Pacific and three shillings for every four common shares. The transfer actually took place on the first of May, 1887, and the road was completed to a junction at the town of Ashland on the 17th of December of that year. This sale gave the California system the control of the trunk line to the Columbia river, and gave encouragement to the long contemplated design of its managers to extend branch lines eastward into Idaho and beyond. The Southern Pacific Company also purchased the Oregon railway
