Work commenced on the west heading with hand drills on April 1, 1886. Air drills were introduced September 1, 1886. Average daily progress with hand drills—4 lineal feet. Average daily progress with air drills—6.9. Headings met May 3, 1888. Tunnels met May 11, 1888. The tunnel opened for traffic on May 27, 1888 Masonry lining began on June 16, 1889, and was completed on November 16, 1895. Costs 9,844.1 lineal feet of tunnel at $78 per lineal foot--$767,839.80. 31,081 cubic yards of extra excavation at $4.50 per cubic yard--$138,864.50. 3,008,638 feet B.M. in lining at $35 per M.--$105,302.33. $1,013,006.63 total. Masonry lining total cost per lineal foot--$54.08. Cement used: . Bricks used: 9,816,620, most from Tacoma. Fatalities Seventeen killed and seventeen injured west. Eleven killed and twenty-two injured east. One killed by construction train. One brickmason foreman was killed by falling rock, two laborers were killed by a work train, and one laborer was electrocuted. The Stampede Pass railroad tunnel is arched in the center; that is, daylight is not detectable at either end of the tunnel when looking through to the other end; unlike both the first (2.6 mile, 1900) and second (7.8 mile, 1929) Cascade Tunnels of the Great Northern Railway at Stevens Pass, which were "boresighted" and ran in a straight line and at a constant downward angle from northeast to southwest. Steam engines ascending in either direction within the confines of the Stampede Tunnel was the cause of many train crews and passengers being nearly choked to death by the buildup of exhaust gasses within the tunnel; this led to a forced-air ventilation equipment being added at the west end of the tunnel at a later date. The grade is 2.2 percent on the east side from the town of Easton and 2.2 percent on the west side from the town of Lester. Andrew Gibson, born and educated in Scotland, began work for the NP on main line construction in Oregon, about west of Portland, as a clerk for Mr. O. Phil, Assistant Engineer, about July 1, 1883, and continued in the same position until the party was disbanded, about the end of October. Was leveler for Colin Mcintosh, assistant engineer on Kalama Inclines during January 1884. Went to work as a "bush hook dude" with William H. Kennedy on Cascade Division Surveys on April 27, 1884, starting at South Prairie and working east. Promoted to