Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the energy consumed by political disputes over slavery. With the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican Party controlled the US Congress. They passed legislation authorizing the railroad, with financing in the form of government railroad bonds. These were all eventually repaid with interest. The government and the railroads both shared in the increased value of the land grants, which the railroads developed. The construction of the railroad also secured for the government the economical "safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores."
The Pacific was chartered by Missouri in 1849 to extend "from St. Louis to the western boundary of Missouri and thence to the Pacific Ocean." Due to a cholera epidemic in 1849, which was a citywide disaster, and other delays, groundbreaking did not occur until July 4, 1851.
The railroad purchased its first steam locomotive from a manufacturer in Taunton, Massachusetts; it arrived at St. Louis by river in August 1852. On December 9, 1852, the Pacific Railroad had its inaugural run, traveling from its depot on Fourteenth Street, along the Mill Creek Valley, to Cheltenham in about ten minutes. By the following May, it had reached Kirkwood.; within months tunnels west of Kirkwood were completed, allowing the line to reach Franklin.
The A&P's earliest predecessor was the Pacific Railroad, incorporated by the Missouri General Assembly in 1849 to connect St. Louis and a point south of Kansas City across the center of the state. In response to an 1852 federal law grantingpublic lands to Missouri to aid in constructing two cross-state railroads, the state approved an amendment to the 1849 Pacific Railroad law in December 1852, adding a Southwest Branch that would receive the grants. The new branch, defined by state law to lie south of the Osage River, began at Franklin, Missouri,(now Pacific) on the main line and headed west-southwesterly across the state. Construction on 71 miles (114km) from Franklin to Dillon was completed in 1860, and a further 6 miles (9.7km) to Rolla were opened in 1861. The company graded12 miles (19km) more to Arlington, but after it defaulted on bonds that had been issued for the branch, the state seized the road from Franklin to Rolla and incomplete roadbed to Arlington in March 1866. The property was sold in June for $1.3 million to explorer and politician John C. Frémont, who reorganized it as the Southwest Pacific Railroad in September. (The main line of the Pacific Railroad was not sold, and would later become the Missouri Pacific Railroad.)
The Central Pacific Railroad number 173 was a 4-4-0 steam locomotive that was an example of a modern steam locomotive of the time. It was the prototype used for the Central Pacific's Sacramento Shops when the railroad began constructing locomotives. The engine was successful, and more engines were subsequently built to 173's design.
ELKO — In the late 1800s, there was a bustling Chinese cultural community in Elko. Its members were initially brought over as labor for the construction of the CentralPacificRailroad... .
Like many towns throughout the PacificNorthwest, Govan sprung to life as a railroad stopover between what's now Wilbur and Almira. After the CentralWashingtonRailway was built in 1889, the depot was named for railroad construction engineer R.
Stanford, the CentralPacificRailroad pioneer that made the first coast-to-coast crossing, the balloon-shaped smokestack and cowcatcher formed the blueprint for Dumbo’s Casey Jr CircusTrain.
The often-corrupt construction managers building the CentralPacific... Crocker and his colleagues in the Central Pacific also never kept track of the many Chinese workers who died building the railroad.
Inspired by the joining of the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railroad tracks by a golden spike in 1876, the art piece highlights the contributions made by the Chinese laborers who were ...
Elko Daily Free Press
05 Nov 2024
Elko Daily Free Press
05 Nov 2024