Southwest Railroad History
The Georailfan Site
SOUTHWEST RAILROAD FRAMEWORK
Congress’ decision as to which route to build involved several considerations, the most important being the discoveries of gold in northern California and silver in northern Nevada, and the secession of the South from the Union, which removed southern Congressmen to support a southern route. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act -- the Union Pacific Railroad would build continuous railroad and telegraph lines west from the eastern shores of the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa (opposite Omaha, Nebraska), which would meet the Central Pacific Railroad and telegraph line built eastward from the navigable waters of the Sacramento River in California. On May 10, 1869, the two rail lines joined with an honorary golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, after laying a combined 1,774 miles of railroad track. Southwest railroading had begun.
An economic downturn in the early 1870’s slowed further railroad construction in the Southwest, but by 1876 the founders of the CP had formed the Southern Pacific Railroad and completed a line south from Sacramento, California, to Los Angeles via Tehachapi Pass, with its amazing curves, tunnels, and the famous Tehachapi Loop. From LA, the SP built eastward following the easy southernmost transcontinental route across the low and flat San Gorgonio Pass across the Pacific Crest and across a low (about 4,000 feet above sea level) and very flat crossing of the Continental Divide in southwestern New Mexico. The SP reached El Paso in 1881 and completed the southernmost transcontinental route through Texas in 1883.
Meanwhile, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad was building westward from Kansas through southeast Colorado toward New Mexico. The route from Colorado to New Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley was through Raton Pass, where the southward-building Denver & Rio Grande Railroad met AT&SF crews on literally the same day. Following 2 years of physical and legal confrontations, a settlement in 1880 gave the AT&SF the right-of-way over Raton Pass, and the D&RG was granted the right-of-way to build westward from Pueblo, Colorado, up the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River to mining areas in the Colorado Rockies. In March 1881, the AT&SF-affiliated New Mexico & Southern Pacific Railroad connected with the SP at Deming, New Mexico; then in 1882, the AT&SF-affiliated New Mexico & Arizona Railroad completed a line southwest from Benson, Arizona, on the SP line, to Nogales on the Mexican border, where it connected with the AT&SF-affiliated Sonora Railway, which connected southward to the Mexican port of Guaymas on the Sea of Cortez, completing a new transcontinental route to the Mexican coast (using SP tracks between Deming and Benson). At the same time, the AT&SF-controlled Atlantic & Pacific Railroad built westward from Albuquerque, New Mexico, across central Arizona and in 1883 reached the Colorado River at Needles, California. There the A&P (AT&SF) connected with an SP branch line that had been build eastward from Mojave, California, at the base of Tehachapi Pass, thus completing the third and last of the the "Pacific Railroad" survey routes in the Southwest. Construction of all three of the transcontinental routes through the Southwest (UP-CP, A&P/AT&SF, and SP) were completed in a 14 year race that was over by 1883, and these three routes are still the mainlines through the Southwest.
One other notable aspect of the building race of the late 1870's and early 1880's was the Denver & Rio Grande and Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroads. Following the D&RG's 1880 loss to the AT&SF of the Raton Pass route to New Mexico, the D&RG turned westward and, in 1883, the same year in which the two Southern Pacific transcontinental routes were completed, the D&RG and D&RGW completed a narrow gauge route from Denver to Salt Lake City via the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The D&RG/D&RGW and other Colorado railroads were not on any of the Pacific Railroad survey routes because Colorado has no easy crossing of the Continental Divide. But, the financial incentives to access Colorado mining districts drove the use of narrow gauge lines and spectacular engineering feats to cross the 10,000+ foot passes of the Colorado Rockies.
Subsequent construction in the Southwest was limited to parallel lines, most notably the 1898 AT&SF-affiliated San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railroad parallel to the SP mainline through the California Central Valley and the 1909 Western Pacific parallel to the CP transcontinental; connecting routes, most notably the 1905 San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake, which connected the UP to Southern California; and branch lines to access points of resource production, most notably mining areas and also lumber, coal, and agricultural areas. All these railroads are shown on the Railroad History Map of the Southwest on the Home Page.
Today, the Union Pacific owns all former UP, SP, CP and D&RG mainlines, and BNSF owns the former AT&SF, Great Northern, and Chicago Burlington & Quincy lines.
Exactly which railroad was the first in the Southwest is a toss-up between two California railroads. On August 4, 1852, the Sacramento Valley Railroad became the first railroad in California to file papers of incorporation. Two years later, in 1854, the Arcata & Mad River Railroad was founded on the northwest coast of California and in 1855 commenced operation of horse drawn cars on 2 miles of wooden rails overlain with iron laid on an unusual narrow gauge of 3 feet 9 1⁄2 inches. Thus, the Arcata & Mad River Railroad was the first working railroad in California. However, in the same year of 1855, the Sacramento Valley Railroad finally began construction and in 1856 ran the first steam-powered train in California. The Sacramento Valley Railroad ran 23 miles from the Sacramento River levee in present-day Old Sacramento to Folsom on iron rails with an unusual broad gauge of 5 ft 3 1⁄2 in. The Southwest Railroad History Map depicts the Sacramento Valley Railroad as the earliest railroad (1856) because the 2-mile Arcata & Mad River possessed neither the length, steam locomotion, nor the iron rails of what I consider a bona fide railroad. (By 1883, the Arcata & Mad River Railroad gained the length, locomotion, and tracks of a bona fide railroad and is so depicted on the map.) Both of these railoads, and the few more that were built in California in the late 1850's and early-middle 1860's, were short lines that transported goods to local ports and warfs for sea transport. None were connected to each other or to the national rail network, which would require a transcontinental line from the East.
The story of a transcontinental line from the East goes back to March 3, 1853, when Congress authorized Secretary of War Jefferson Davis “to Ascertain the Most Practical and Economical Route for a Railroad From the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.” Davis ordered Captain George B. McClellan and the Corps of Topographical Engineers, a division in the United States Army established to “discover, open up, and make accessible the American West,” to fulfill this obligation. Lobbyists attempted to influence the selected locations because of the important social, political, and economic consequences and the huge cost of the endeavor; even the least expensive route would about equal the federal budget for one year. Four surveys were conducted during 1853-1855 for potential routes for the "Pacific Railroad." The Northern Pacific survey ran from St. Paul, Minnesota, to the Puget Sound. The Central Pacific survey ran from St. Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. There were two Southern Pacific surveys, one from Oklahoma to Los Angeles, California, which became the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and a second that ran across Texas to San Diego, California, which became the Southern Pacific Railroad.
U.S. RAILROADS 1870
U.S. RAILROADS 1890
CENTRAL PACIFIC - UNION PACIFIC
CENTRAL PACIFIC SURVEY
SOUTHERN PACIFIC SURVEY (FUTURE SP)
1855 Pacific Railroad Surveys.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC SURVEY (FUTURE AT&SF)
Groundbreaking for the Sacramento Valley Railroad occurred in February 1855. The first section of rail, from the waterfront to 17th Street, was completed when the first locomotive arrived via ship. With much fanfare, on August 17, 1855, the Sacramento Valley Railroad locomotive No. 1 -- the Sacramento -- made its inaugural run up to 17th Street. This short excursion marked the first running of a locomotive west of the Rocky Mountians. Train service 23 miles east to Folsom began in early 1856.
CENTRAL PACIFIC - UNION PACIFIC
ATCHISON TOPEKA & SANTA FE
SOUTHERN PACIFIC
In 1883, the AT&SF-controlled Atlantic & Pacific Railroad met the Southern Pacific at Needles, California, 10 miles north of this location, thus completing the third and last of the the "Pacific Railroad" survey routes in the Southwest. The Needles bridge washed out and was moved to this location in 1890 and replaced by this bridge in 1945. Thus, the BNSF bridge pictured here is the modern symbol of the completion of the third and last of the "Pacific Railroad" survey routes in the Southwest and the end of a 14 year race to build those routes and control Southwest railroading.
In 1882, the Denver, South Park, & Pacific Railroad completed a narrow gauge line through the heart of the Colorado Rockies. The line crossed the Continental Divide via the Alpine Tunnel at an elevation of 11,524 feet. The western approach to the tunnel involved switchbacks and blasting through a granite face called the Palisade, which required a retaining wall to support the grade (to the left of center in this photo).
