Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition

1
Elusive Eden A New History of California, fourth
edition

• CHAPTER FOURTEEN THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD

2

• Transportation Problems in Gold Rush California
• Transportation hampered development
• --Distances within, beyond the state
• --Mountains cut off southern San Joaquin Valley,
  interior valleys
• Water travel easiest
• --Great distances from ports to mining towns
• --Delayed delivery, raised costs
• --Added to business risk

3

• Ocean, overland travel expensive, dangerous
• --Discouraged immigration after Gold Rush
• --Few women, children
• Californians demanded better transportation

4

• Early Transcontinental Railroad Schemes
• US railroad networks expanded through 19th c
• Transcontinental rr would link eastern manuf with
  Asian markets
• Fremont surveyed central route for
  transcontinental rr 1845
• Mexican War, Gold Rush intensified interest

5

• Eastern industrialists, western communities
  pressured Congress to subsidize road
• 1853 Senator William Gwin proposed road w
  federally subsidies
• --Too expensive for private companies
• --2000 miles with no freight, passengers
• Supporters disagreed on placement
• --Southern or northern route
• --Terminus, communities served

6

• Pioneer Rail Lines
• 1850s, 1860s Californians built trunk lines
• Difficult to raise funds, find laborers
• Projects speculative, sometimes fraudulent
• One success 1856 Sacramento Valley Railroad
  completed 23 mile line
• --Connected Sacramento steamboat port with
  American River
• --Carried miners, supplies
• --Created boom town at end Folsom

7

• Short routes in SF Bay Area
• --1863 railroad between Oakland port, business
  district
• --1865 50-mile San Francisco San Jose Railroad
  completed
• --1866 15-mile San Francisco Alameda Railroad
  opened
• --Secured city's dominance over interior
• --Helped build bedroom communities

8

• Theodore Judah, Visionary
• Chief engineer Sacramento Valley Railroad
• Civil engineer on Erie Canal
• Built eastern bridges, railroads
• Finished road in 2 years
• Company went bankrupt
• Judah left 1856

9

• Promoted central transcontinental railway route
  through Sierra Nevada
• --Searched mountain passes
• --Looked for backers in SF, New York, Congress
• --Nicknamed "Crazy Judah"
• --Investors doubted Sierra route

10

• 1859 state legislature convened second Pacific
  Railroad Convention
• --rival cities again prevented agreement on
  precise route
• --convention agreed should connect SF Bay Area to
  central Sierras
• --included federal construction subsidies

11

• Judah took plan to Washington
• --Promoted 1859-1860
• --Presidential campaign north-south contest
• --Northern Congressmen favored route, southerners
  opposed
• --Lincoln elected November 6, 1860
• --South Carolina seceded December 20, 1860

12

• The Founding of Central Pacific Railroad
• Judah returned to California summer 1860
• Gold rush to western Nevada in spring 1859
• --Trade boom for SF
• --SF steamships, stagecoach businesses dominated
• --Saved Sacramento rr
• --Goods, passengers carried by steamer to
  Sacramento, rr to Folsom, wagon over Sierras
• --Monopoly renewed interest in railroad

13

• SF group hired Judah to extend road from Folsom
• --Judah discovered central Sierra route
• --Secretly formed rival company, searched for
  financiers
• Route began at Sacramento
• --traveled north, east 70 miles
• --7000 feet, 115 miles over Donner Pass
• --Followed Truckee River down to Nevada

14

• October 1860 formed Central Pacific Railroad
• --Construction estimate 115,000
• --Issued stock to raise
• --State required bond of 10, 10K per mile
• Judah promoted in San Francisco
• --Threatened steamship, freight lines
• --Sacramento Valley Railroad fired Judah,
  criticized route
• --Discouraged investors for years

15

• Looked for backers along route
• --Tracks from Folsom to Dutch Flat, toll road to
  Virginia City
• --Merchants, businesses supported
• Collis P. Huntington, partner Mark Hopkins owned
  Sacramento hardware store
• --Brought in Huntington attorney Charles Crocker,
  brother Edwin, banker Leland Stanford
• --Subscribed to state's 10 minimum
• --About 2800 each

16

• April 1861 partners reorganized Judah's company
• --Stanford elected president
• --Huntington VP
• --Hopkins treasurer
• --Edwin Crocker attorney
• --Judah chief engineer

17

• June 27, 1861 Central Pacific Railroad
  Corporation incorporated
• --Hopkins, Huntington, Stanford, Crocker brothers
  brought credibility
• --Huntington brought eastern suppliers
• Stanford brought Republican connections
• --California Republican party founded 1856
• --Stanford campaigned for John C. Fremont, then
  Lincoln
• --1860 elections Republican sweep

18

• Civil War And Transcontinental Railway
• Small minority Californians southerners
• --Majority sided with Union
• --Confederate support in southern California, San
  Joaquin Valley
• --Republicans controlled state, local politics
  through 1850s
• --Raised 1 million for U.S. Sanitary Commission
• --California volunteers joined Second
  Massachusetts Cavalry

19

• Wartime shortages stimulated local manufacturing
• Comstock silver discovery late 1859 drained SF
  population
• --SF bankers, merchants made fortunes
• --Congress anxious to tie West to Union
• --Control gold, silver, move troops
• --Southern opposition to central route ended
  January 1860

20

• The Central Pacific Besieged
• 1861 Central Pacific in trouble
• --Critics skeptical of Donner Pass
• --Hampered private financing
• --Shortages of money, workers, equipment,
  supplies, ships

21

• Judah underestimated costs, distance
• --First stock release raised 10K
• --Summer 1861 discovered 140 miles through Donner
  Pass
• --Meant 3 miles of tunnels through granite
• --13 million to finish (310M today), 88,000
  (2M) per mile
• --50 higher than Judah's original estimates
• --3x federal subsidies

22

• Local competition for federal subsidies
• --San Francisco San Jose Railroad
• --Sacramento Valley Railroad
• --San Francisco, Stockton, Placerville,
  Marysville supported competitors
• --Pacific Mail Steamship, California Steam
  Navigation, Wells Fargo opposed Central Pacific
  control

23

• The Pacific Railway Act of 1862
• September 1861 Republican Stanford elected
  governor
• Republicans carried state legislature,
  Congressional delegation
• --Judah, Huntington went to Washington
• --Joined Senate, House committees writing
  railroad bill
• --Lobbied Congress through winter, spring 1862
• --Paid supporters with Central Pacific stock

24

• Settled with San Francisco San Jose Railroad
• --Would build road from SF to Sacramento, collect
  subsidy
• --Dropped opposition
• July 1861 Congress passed Pacific Railway Act
• --Central Pacific would build east from
  Sacramento River to Nevada
• --Union Pacific Railroad would build west from
  Missouri River

25

• --Given rights-of-way, rights to timber, stone
• --Granted 10 sq. miles per mile of track in
  alternate sections
• --Subsidies backed by 30-year government bonds at
  6 interest
• --16,000/mi flat lands 32,000/mi deserts
  48,000/mi mountains
• --Companies could sell bonds, land

26

• Completion still uncertain
• --Subsidies too low
• --1876 line must be complete or assets forfeited
• --Subsidies paid as segments completed
• --Govn held first mortgage on assets
• --Govn lien discouraged private investors

27

• Local Subsidies and Mounting Opposition to the
  Central Pacific
• 1862-1864 Gov. Stanford secured state financing
• --Sold state bonds
• --Authorized community bonds
• --Raised 1M

28

• Rival companies, communities filed lawsuits
• --Accused Central Pacific officials of
  corruption, bribery
• --Labeled plan "Great Dutch Flat Swindle"
• --Gov. Stanford protected company interests
• --Most of lawsuits settled by 1865
• --Added expense, delays

29

• Breaking Ground
• Construction began January 8, 1863 in Sacramento
• Crocker formed Charles Crocker Co. to built
  first segment
• March 1863 Huntington secured funds, material on
  credit

30

• Judah Versus The Big Four
• November 1864 deadline to finish first 50 mile
  segment
• --Funds gone
• --Big Four demanded payment from delinquent
  shareholders
• --Assessed new contributions

31

• Judah angry with Big Four
• --Gov. Stanford bribed state geologist
• --Told Congress Sierra Nevada began 7 miles from
  Sacramento
• Big Four angry with Judah's costly mistakes
• July 1863 Huntington faction took control of
  Central Pacific board
• --Demanded board pay assessments or give up seats
• --Judah unable to pay

32

• --Judah exchanged stock for 100,000 in Central
  Pacific bonds
• October 1863 Judah left for New York
• --Planned meetings with Jay Gould, Cornelius
  Vanderbilt
• --Contracted yellow fever in Panama
• --November 1863 died in New York City

33

• The Pacific Railway Act Of 1864
• Tracks laid through Sacramento September 1863
• --Connected port, construction site
• --First engine traveled November 9
• --Named Gov. Stanford
• Lawsuits settled, state, local bond monies
  available
• Huntington, Union Pacific convinced Congress to
  amend railroad act

34

• 1864 Pacific Railway Act of 1864 more generous
• --Extended first 50 mile deadline to 1865
• --Doubled land grant to 20 miles per mile of
  track
• --Assigned govn second position on bonds
• --More attractive for private investors
• 1866 Congress removed construction limits
• --Companies began competing to lay track
• --Private subscriptions rose

35

• Completing the Transcontinental Railway
• April 1864 first passengers, freight
• --18 miles Sacramento to Roseville
• June 1864 finished road to Newcastle (near
  Auburn), Dutch Flat wagon road
• Took over Comstock trade
• --Revenues finally greater than expenses

36

• Winter 1865 building slowed
• --Snows in Sierra
• --Labor shortages
• --Mining easier
• Crocker experimented with Chinese labor
• --Foreman objected
• --Learned fast, worked hard, paid 60-90 less
  than white workers
• --Provided own food, shelter

37

• By May 1865 Chinese 2/3 of Central Pacific labor
  force
• --Crocker imported additional Chinese workers
• --Completed extension lines
• --Repair gangs
• Problems multiplied at Auburn
• --Grade to crest 5,000 ft over 40 mi
• --Below-zero temperatures, 40-ft snow in mtns
• --Workers killed in cave-ins, explosions, strikes
  

38

• Track progressed
• --14,000 workers worked round the clock shifts
• --1868 built snow-sheds through Donner Pass
• --November 1867 first train crossed summit
• --May 1868 reached Nevada line
• --Next 12 months, another 550 miles
• --Union Pacific slowed by Rocky Mountains
• --Companies laid parallel tracks to collect
  subsidies, land
• Congress amended legislation
• May 10, 1869 Union Pacific, Central Pacific met
  at Promontory Point, Utah

39

• The Big Four and the Emerging Rail System
• Trunk lines built around state
• --SF Bay connected to coastal valleys
• --1869 Los Angeles San Pedro Railroad connected
  pueblo to harbor
• --Interior populations grew
• --North coast, San Diego left out

40

• Big Four bought out competitors
• --Rate wars drove under
• --1865 forced Sacramento Valley RR out of
  business
• --Initial revenues disappointing

41

• Options monopoly or bankruptcy
• --1873 national depression meant couldnt sell
  out
• --Borrowed, reinvested to maintain monopoly
• --1868 bought roads around SF Bay area
• --Controlled ports at Alameda, Oakland
• --Moved terminus from Sacramento to Oakland

42

• Invested in steamships, ferries, riverboats,
  freight service
• --1871 partnered Pacific Mail Steamship Company
• --1874 founded Occidental and Oriental Steamship
  Company
• Communities granted valuable real estate, cash
  payments or lost connections

43

• 1868 purchased Southern Pacific Railroad
• --Formed 1865 by San Francisco San Jose
• --Southern route avoided Sierras
• --Planned to connect San Francisco, San Jose, San
  Diego, then east to Arizona
• --Congress authorized to complete second
  transcontinental road across Colorado River
• --Atlantic Pacific to build west from St. Louis
  

44

• 1869-1876 Central/Southern Pacific completed
  southern routes
• --Built from San Jose to Hollister
• --Second line south through San Joaquin Valley,
  through Tehachapis
• 1872 forced Los Angeles to subsidize trunk line
• --Connected Los Angeles to northern, Sierra
  routes
• --Completed September 5, 1876
• --Big Four bought out competitors in Los Angeles

45

• 1877 bridged Colorado River, built to Yuma
• --Didn't wait for Congress, federal subsidies
• --Began laying tracks across Arizona, New Mexico
• --1881 reached El Paso, Texas
• --Connected to Huntington-owned roads in Texas,
  Louisiana
• --1883 completed lines to Houston, New Orleans
• --Now controlled coast-to-coast system

46

• February 1883 offered service from San Francisco
  to New Orleans
• --1887 bought out Oregon California Railroad
• --Connected Sacramento and Portland
• --Bought out other Oregon lines

47

• The Southern Pacific Company
• By end of 1870s Big Four controlled California
  transportation
• --Operated 2,340 miles of track
• --Controlled 85 of roads in state
• --Controlled traffic in, around San Francisco,
  Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Joaquin valley

48

• 1884 reorganized under Southern Pacific Company
• --Holding company protected assets
• --Helped prevent federal control
• --Big Four operated system from headquarters in
  San Francisco, New York

49

• Santa Fe Railroad encroached in 1880s
• --Built new lines into state
• --Forced Southern Pacific into rate war
• --Cheap fares sparked pop. Boom So. Cal.
• --1890s built tracks into San Joaquin Valley,
  built trunk line to Richmond
• 1900 Union Pacific, Western Pacific Railroad
  finished competing transcontinental lines
• Southern Pacific still dominated California into
  1950s

50
Theodore D. Judah California State Railroad
Museum.
51
The Big Four Leland Stanford. California State
Railroad Museum.
52
The Big Four Collis P. Huntington. California
State Railroad Museum.
53
The Big Four Charles Crocker. California State
Railroad Museum.
54
The Big Four Mark Hopkins. California State
Railroad Museum.
55
Chinese Laborers Filling the Secret Town
Trestle Once they had proven their skills,
Chinese immigrants came to comprise a high
percentage of the Central Pacifics work force,
even after the completion of the first
transcontinental line. In the 1870s Collis P.
Huntingtons friend Carleton E. Watkins, who
often worked on assignment for the Big Four, took
this famous photograph of Chinese laborers
filling in the 1,000-foot-long Secret Town
trestle, sixty-two miles east of Sacramento. This
item is reproduced by permission of The
Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
56
Snowsheds on the Central Pacific Alfred Hart
photographed the Central Pacifics famous
snowsheds while they were under construction in
the late 1860s. This item is reproduced by
permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
57
Thomas Hills The Last Spike Commissioned years
later by Leland Stanford, Thomas Hills romantic
depiction of the driving of the golden spike at
Promontory Point portrays a cross-section of
those associated with the building of the
transcontinental line leaders such as Stanford
(at center, holding the hammer) Chinese laborers
(to Stanfords left) Irish immigrant workers,
smoking their characteristic pipes (to the right
and below Stanford) Indians (foreground) and a
wagon train, the transportation mode being
supplanted (background). Also in the painting
were persons not present at the spike driving,
including Collis P. Huntington, who was in New
York at the time. Theodore Judah, dead for nearly
six years, is resurrected at the lower right.
Scorned by Stanford, the painting now hangs in
the California State Railroad Museum at
Sacramento. California State Railroad Museum.
58
Southern Pacific Rail Lines in California and
Nevada, 1923 In this map of main California and
Nevada railroads near their peak of expansion,
South-ern Pacific Company tracks appear as wide,
those of rival companies as narrow,
lines. Courtesy of the California His-tory Room,
California State Library,Sacramento, California.