Science

History

Art &
Literature

GIS &
Mapping

Library

ChatRoom
Search
TrailHead
Base Camp
       



The Work of The Age

The first railroad built in California was constructed between Sacramento and the foothill town of Folsom in 1856. This 22 miles of track shipped supplies that had come up the Sacramento by boat to the mining towns and camps along the American River.

Theodore Judah was the engineer who had surveyed and promoted this first small railroad, and it was his engineering vision that motivated the building of a railroad that could cross the formidable peaks of the sierra Nevada mountain range. The goal of such a railroad was to end the isolation California had known during the years it relied on lengthy sea voyages as its only connection to the eastern seaboard states.

Judah first sought support in Washington DC for what he called the "most magnificent project ever conceived" in 1859. But the impending civil War had Congress too distracted with anti/pro slavery issues to take his ideas seriously. So, Judah returned to California, surveyed the best path for the railroad, and began seeking wealthy sponsors to fund the project.

At this time, San Francisco had more millionaires than New York or Boston. But these millionaires, such as William Ralston, ran profitable steamship lines and saw the overland railroad as a threat to their source of wealth. They turned Judah down.

But Judah knew their decision would soon be their great regret. He turned attention to Sacramento businessmen and would soon find himself the force that created the four most famous millionaires in California history - The Big Four.

In Sacramento, Judah interested four merchants - not yet millionaires - in his projects: Charles Crocker (who had been selling clothing and carpets since arriving in California in 1850), Collis Huntington and Mark Hopkins (original 49ers who were partners in a profitable hardware business that sold mining supplies), and Leland Stanford (a lawyer who had opened a grocery and feed store after his arrival in 1852).

Abraham Lincoln had just been elected president in November of 1860 and Judah assured the Crocker-Huntington-Hopkins-Stanford interests that Congress would now be ready to approve a major railroad project now that a strong anti-slavery president was in the White House. In fact, it was Judah himself, and engineer by trade, who taught his investors the ways to receive extensive subsidies from the government to offset the majority of costs to build this remarkable railroad.

"Interested, tempted by visions of profits unattainable in hardware, clothing, and groceries, the four men (they called themselves "the associates") agreed to invest in Judah's plan." Noted J.S. Holiday in Rushes for Riches (recommended reading). The four Sacramento businessmen would soon become four of the wealthiest millionaires in the State of California, but first, they had to set in motion a political machine that would ensure their success. They pushed to have Leland Stanford, the attorney, become the next governor of California, while at the same time making him the president of their enterprise, called the Central Pacific Railroad. Judah went east and handed out stock to influential Congressmen to gain support, and even managed to get in a position to help write the legislation that would fund the massive construction costs.

"On July 1,1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad act, authorizing construction of the most ambitious project of the century, hailed in later years as "The Work of the Age" … and undertaken even as the nation fought the ferocious battles of its bloody civil war " in the 1860s. California also contributed financially to the construction of the railroad, in spite of efforts by the shipping line owners to prevent State investment in the project.

It took a total of four bills and amendments in Congress to get the Pacific Railroad built. But who was to provide the labor to undertake this massive engineering feat that would turn Judah's vision, his partners and government funding, and wood and iron supplies by the trainload into a railroad? And what misfortunes would the visionary Judah meet in his efforts to guide the construction of the railroad of his dreams?