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 "Pacific Railroad Acts" were a series of acts of Congress that promoted the construction of a "transcontinental railroad" (the "Pacific Railroad") in the United States through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of land to railroad companies. Although the War Department under then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was authorized by the Congress in 1853 to conduct surveys of five different potential transcontinental routes from the Mississippi ranging from north to south and submitted a massive twelve volume report to Congress with the results in early 1855, no route or bill could be agreed upon and passed authorizing the Government's financial support and land grants until the secession of the Southern states removed their opposition to a central route. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 (12 Stat. 489) was the original act. Some of its provisions were subsequently modified, expanded, or repealed by four additional amending Acts: The Pacific Railroad Act of 1863 (12 Stat. 807), Pacific Railroad Act of 1864 (13 Stat. 356), Pacific Railroad Act of 1865 (13 Stat. 504), and Pacific Railroad Act of 1866 (14 Stat. 66).
The achievement resulted from the PacificRailroadAct that chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads to build a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from coast to coast.
at the urging of congressional leaders after Norfolk Southern’s disastrous February 2023 derailment in eastern Ohio, and the episode with UnionPacific may prompt lawmakers to finally act on stalled railroad safety reforms.
at the urging of congressional leaders after Norfolk Southern’s disastrous February 2023 derailment in eastern Ohio, and the episode with UnionPacific may prompt lawmakers to finally act on stalled railroad safety reforms.
We pay tribute to the hard work and diligence of the Chinese railroad workers to the economic development of our nation.” ... “In 1862, the PacificRailroadAct marked the commencement of a monumental project that would span the continent.
This would be a modern equivalent of the PacificRailwayAct of 1862 by which Congress pushed the transcontinental railroad forward ...Wagon travel took months and the railroad reduced that to days.
This would be a modern equivalent of the PacificRailwayAct of 1862 by which Congress pushed the transcontinental railroad forward ...Wagon travel took months and the railroad reduced that to days.
... the HomesteadAct (accelerating settlement of the Great Plains), the Morrill Act (creating land-grant colleges) and the PacificRailway Act (speeding completion of the transcontinental railroad).
... the HomesteadAct (accelerating settlement of the Great Plains), the Morrill Act (creating land-grant colleges) and the PacificRailway Act (speeding completion of the transcontinental railroad).
... the HomesteadAct (accelerating settlement of the Great Plains), the Morrill Act (creating land-grant colleges) and the PacificRailway Act (speeding completion of the transcontinental railroad).
... the HomesteadAct (accelerating settlement of the Great Plains), the Morrill Act (creating land-grant colleges) and the PacificRailway Act (speeding completion of the transcontinental railroad).
Jacobson, whose legislative district is home to the UnionPacificRailroad’s Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world, cast the issue as one of safety for the public and for railroad workers.
Quad-City Times
07 Jul 2024
Quad-City Times
07 Jul 2024