Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad

by Walter R. Borneman

  9. Robert Brewster Stanton, Down the Colorado (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965), pp. xiv–xv, 20–22.

  10. Hauck, Narrow Gauge to Central and Silver Plume, pp. 77–79; Gould visit in Georgetown Courier, October 18, 1883; “The bridge builders say”: Georgetown Courier, November 29, 1883; “Tis done at last”: Georgetown Courier, January 24, 1884. Construction costs for this extension, including the loop, were $254,700.

  11. Grodinsky, Transcontinental Railway Strategy, pp. 172–73; Lavender, The Great Persuader, p. 336.

  12. Grodinsky, Transcontinental Railway Strategy, pp. 299–300.

  13. Waters, Steel Trails, pp. 76–83; Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, pp. 126–34. As early as 1881, Charles Crocker encouraged Huntington to buy the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe as a defense against Gould, but at the time, Huntington was momentarily making peace with Gould and fixated with the continued eastward growth of his own empire. Meanwhile, the Santa Fe’s Southern Kansas Railway had also completed a line from Kiowa, Kansas, across the Cimarron and Canadian rivers and on to Panhandle City in Texas. Critics were quick to say that this road started nowhere and ended nowhere, but Strong undertook the route to counter John Evans’s Gulf-to-Rockies route and ensure that the Santa Fe maintained an edge in shipping Texas beef to Kansas City.

  After their sale of the South Park, Evans and some of his investors incorporated the Denver and New Orleans Railroad to run from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. Its initial goal was to link up with the Fort Worth and Denver City under the leadership of General Grenville Dodge. This Texas road hoped to build northwest from Fort Worth. Not surprisingly, Evans’s sale of the South Park to Gould and Dodge’s work for Gould on other construction ventures raised the opposition’s cry that Evans was actually building the Denver and New Orleans for Gould.

  The line stalled at Pueblo for the better part of five years. When it renewed construction southeast from Trinidad in 1887 as the Denver, Texas and Gulf Railroad, it did so only because of trackage rights on the Denver and Rio Grande between Pueblo and Trinidad, now laid as standard gauge. About this time, William Barstow Strong tried to acquire the road for the Santa Fe as its independent entry into Denver. Evans said no and pushed on to meet up with Dodge in northeast New Mexico.

  The story of this Gulf-to-Rockies line is not directly related to the struggle for the southern transcontinental corridor, but it must not be overlooked. By varying degrees, this route interacted as a north-south feeder among the Union Pacific, Kansas Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Santa Fe, and Texas and Pacific. With connections south from Fort Worth, it reached into Mexico. While the road ran increasingly eastward the farther south it got from Denver, it essentially emulated with standard gauge rails the north-south feeder line between Denver and El Paso that Palmer originally envisioned for the Denver and Rio Grande. In 1890 the Gulf-to-Rockies line became part of the Union Pacific. See Richard C. Overton, Gulf to Rockies: The Heritage of the Fort Worth and Denver–Colorado Southern Railways, 1861–1898 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1970).

  CHAPTER 16: TO THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA

  1. For the construction history of the Mexican Railway see David M. Pletcher, “The Building of the Mexican Railway,” Hispanic American Historical Review 30, no. 1 (February 1950): 26–62. The American Civil War interrupted plans for an American-backed railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and Mexico endured its own internal strife before France attempted to profit from the confusion and seize Mexico under the pretense of collecting foreign debts.

  2. David M. Pletcher, “General William S. Rosecrans and the Mexican Transcontinental Railroad Project,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 38 (March 1952): 657–58.

  3. Pletcher, “Rosecrans and the Mexican Transcontinental Railroad Project,” pp. 659–64; Fisher, A Builder of the West, pp. 213, 217–22.

  4. Pletcher, “Rosecrans and the Mexican Transcontinental Railroad Project,” pp. 662, 670–72, specifically, “Mr. Lerdo is,” pp. 670–71, note 30; “is opposed to our gauge” and “The General as usual”: Palmer Collection, Box 9, FF 711 (Palmer to Queen Palmer, January 2, 1873); generally, see also the chapters on Rosecrans and Plumb in David M. Pletcher, Rails, Mines, & Progress: Seven American Promoters in Mexico, 1867–1911 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1958).

  5. “This business in Mexico” and “wanted to know”: Palmer Collection, Box 9, FF 711 (Palmer to Queen Palmer, January 6, 1873).

  6. “General Rosecrans”: Palmer Collection, Box 9, FF 713 (Palmer to Queen Palmer, May 15, 1873); Fisher, A Builder of the West, pp. 229–35; Pletcher, “Rosecrans and the Mexican Transcontinental Railroad Project,” p. 673.

  7. Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, pp. 80–83; “William is looking”: Cleaveland, The Morleys, p. 203.

  8. Gerald M. Best, Mexican Narrow Gauge (Berkeley, Calif.: Howell-North Books, 1968), pp. 11–12. Palmer assured himself of a suitable entry into the capital by acquiring the struggling Mexico, Toluca, and Cuautitlan, a narrow gauge short line. Its thirty-five-pound rails were deemed too light, so the line was relaid with forty-five-pound rail.

  9. Klein, Gould, pp. 274–75, 306. Gould consolidated his interests with the Mexican Southern Railroad, the chief promoter of which was former president Ulysses S. Grant.

  10. Gunnison Review, July 30, 1881, quoting the Denver Tribune.

  11. Best, Mexican Narrow Gauge, pp. 12–13, 16; two versions of Morley’s accident are Waters, Steel Trails, pp. 107–8n and Cleaveland, The Morleys, pp. 212–15, including “one of the most able,” p. 215; “that so far as”: Klein, Gould, p. 275.

  12. Best, Mexican Narrow Gauge, pp. 14, 16.

  CHAPTER 17: CALIFORNIA FOR A DOLLAR

  1. Railway Review, June 5, 1886, p. 286.

  2. Grodinsky, Transcontinental Railway Strategy, pp. 280–85; “the people along”: Fifteenth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company to the Stockholders for the Year Ending December 31, 1886, p. 28.

  3. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 177–81; “two streaks of rust”: Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, p. 136.

  4. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 181–83. The bridges and their approaches were major structures. The longest crossed the Missouri River at Sibley, Missouri, just east of Kansas City. The Sibley Bridge was composed of seven girder sections—three of them 400 feet long—that totaled 2,000 feet and were supported by eight masonry piers. It was accessed on the east by an additional 1,900-foot viaduct. The main span of the Grand River structure between Carrollton and Marceline, Missouri, was 459 feet long; the Des Moines River crossing southwest of Fort Madison was 900 feet; and the Illinois River crossing at Chillicothe had a main span of 752 feet. That left the Mississippi bridge at Fort Madison. Completed in early December 1887, the structure cost $580,000 and had a total length of 2,963 feet. The crossing consisted of eight spans: four each of 237.5 feet, one of 275 feet, two of 150 feet, and one drawbridge span of 400 feet. An additional 1,038 feet of viaduct made up the eastern approach over seventy-four 14-foot spans.

  5. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 181, 184; Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, pp. 138–39; Miner, St. Louis–San Francisco, pp. 166–67.

  6. Franklin Hoyt, “San Diego’s First Railroad: The California Southern,” Pacific Historical Review 23, no. 2 (May 1954): 145–46.

  7. “to keep peace” and “We have done”: Grodinsky, Transcontinental Railway Strategy, p. 318.

  8. Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, pp. 102–3; Franklin Hoyt, “The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad,” Pacific Historical Review 20, no. 3 (August 1951): 237.

  9. Census figures from 1880 U.S. Census; dollar equivalents based on CPI from measuringworth.com; “say they can purchase”: Fogelson, The Fragmented Metropolis, p. 65, quoting Los Angeles Herald, November 5, 1880, and “It seems almost impossible”: p. 66, quoting Los Angeles Evening Express, September 1, 1884.

  10. “Like birds of passage”: Fogelson, The Fragmented Metropolis, p. 66; dollar story
from Wilson and Taylor, Southern Pacific, p. 86.

  11. Fogelson, The Fragmented Metropolis, p. 67.

  12. “The history of Western railroad”: Seventeenth Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Co. to the Stockholders for the Year Ending December 31, 1888, p. 16; 1888 trackage from Bradley, Santa Fe, p. 290.

  CHAPTER 18: MAKING THE MARKETS

  1. Miner, St. Louis–San Francisco, p. 148.

  2. Walter R. Borneman, Marshall Pass: Denver and Rio Grande Gateway to the Gunnison Country (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Century One Press, 1980), pp. 39, 48, 50, specifically, “of this line,” p. 48. The wording “Scenic Line of the World” in reference to Marshall Pass appeared as early as a travel account in the Gunnison Review of June 11, 1881.

  3. “Never mind, my dear”: Walter R. Borneman, “Ride the Historic Georgetown Loop,” American West 24, no. 3 (June 1987): 44.

  4. Dow Helmers, Historic Alpine Tunnel (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Century One Press, 1971), “highest point reached,” p. 70, “It is something to know,” p. 41. The Central Pacific established the first major altitude record in the United States by crossing 7,085-foot Donner Summit. The Santa Fe’s crossing of 7,834-foot Raton Pass was a clear watershed on the line’s westward advance, but the crossing did not garner an altitude record. By the time the Santa Fe built across Raton, the Denver and Rio Grande had pushed its narrow gauge rails over 9,390-foot La Veta Pass en route from Cuchara Junction to the San Luis Valley. In May 1879, the Denver, South Park and Pacific captured the altitude record by building over Colorado’s 9,991-foot Kenosha Pass en route to the Alpine Tunnel. Late in 1880, the Rio Grande completed a spur line over 11,318-foot Frémont Pass northeast of Leadville, but the South Park snatched the title back when it finally opened the Alpine Tunnel in 1882 at an elevation of 11,538 feet. In the fall of 1887, the Colorado Midland completed the standard gauge Hagerman Tunnel at 11,528 feet between Leadville and the Roaring Fork Valley. The Hagerman Tunnel held the altitude record after the Alpine Tunnel was temporarily shut down between 1888 and 1895, although the Hagerman Tunnel itself was abandoned for the lower Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel (10,953 feet) in 1893.

  Any contest between the gauges for the altitude record was firmly settled when David Moffat’s standard gauge Denver, Northwestern and Pacific crossed 11,680-foot Rollins Pass in 1904. Rollins Pass (also called Corona) held the record until it was abandoned for the lower Moffat Tunnel (9,239 feet at apex) in 1928, although the track was not torn up until 1937. The record then fell to the narrow gauge line over Marshall Pass, with its elevation of 10,846 feet. When the Marshall Pass line was abandoned in 1955, the Rio Grande standard gauge over Tennessee Pass captured the record with a crossing of 10,424 feet. (Elevations and dates from Wilkins, Colorado Railroads.)

  5. Myrick, New Mexico’s Railroads, pp. 15–16.

  6. Donald Duke, Santa Fe … The Railroad Gateway to the American West, vol. 2, Passenger and Freight Service, et al. (San Marino, Calif.: Golden West Books, 1997), pp. 306–8.

  7. Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, p. 111.

  8. For a thorough history of the Harvey girls, see Lesley Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West (New York: Paragon House, 1989), specifically, “no ladies west of Dodge,” p. 52; “We didn’t have,” p. 56; and “they used to say,” p. 99.

  9. For the coat rule, including the Harvey sons’ continuation of it despite litigation, see Waters, Steel Trails, pp. 277–78; the cup code is discussed in Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls, pp. 58, 217n.

  10. Dining car service in Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, p. 118; for a complete list of Harvey facilities, see Poling-Kempes, The Harvey Girls, pp. 233–34; “had more friends”: Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, p. 106. From 1930 to about 1970, there was a Fred Harvey lunch counter and restaurant in Cleveland’s Terminal Tower, at one time the tallest building outside of New York City. On trips to downtown Cleveland from the west side in the late 1950s, the author’s grandmother took him to Fred Harvey for ice cream. Gram’s talk of “Fred Harvey” left a five-year-old quite expecting to see the man himself walk out from the kitchen.

  11. Brooke Kroeger, Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist (New York: Times Books, 1994), pp. 4–5, 43–44, 75, 85–86, 168–73, specifically, “I am off for New York,” p. 75; “Start the man,” p. 140; “For Nellie Bly,” p. 161; “On the line out to this point,” p. 165; reports of Nellie’s progress across Kansas in State Journal (Topeka), January 23, 1890; the bridge incident in State Journal, January 24, 1890.

  CHAPTER 19: CANYON DREAMS AND SCHEMES

  1. Wilkins, Colorado Railroads, pp. 81, 85. The Rio Grande Western standard gauge built from Cisco, Utah, up the Colorado River through spectacular Ruby Canyon, and met its original narrow gauge right-of-way about 20 miles west of Grand Junction.

  2. David Lavender, Colorado River Country (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1982), pp. 151–53, specifically, “I have given up,” p. 153. The Black Betty was portaged by wagon across sagebrush flats to avoid Westwater Canyon and its test-piece rapid, the Skull.

  3. Lavender, Colorado River Country, pp. 152–56. The author paddled the length of the Grand Canyon, including Soap Creek Rapid, with David Lavender in 1986.

  4. David Lavender, River Runners of the Grand Canyon (Tucson: Grand Canyon Natural History Association and the University of Arizona Press, 1985), pp. 25–27, specifically, “cut my salary off,” p. 27.

  5. Lavender, Colorado River Country, p. 157; “a living, moving”: Lavender, River Runners, p. 30.

  6. Lavender, Colorado River Country, p. 158; Lavender, River Runners, pp. 30–31; “not one word”: Robert Brewster Stanton, Colorado River Controversies (Boulder City, Nev.: Westwater Books, 1982), p. 110.

  7. Worster, A River Running West, pp. 527–28.

  8. C. Gregory Crampton, Ghosts of Glen Canyon (Salt Lake City, Utah: Cricket Productions, 1986), p. 80.

  9. While it is heavily steeped in legend, the Cañon Diablo train robbery is best analyzed in Paul T. Hietter, “ ‘No Better Than Murderers’: The 1889 Canyon Diablo Train Robbery and the Death Penalty in Arizona Territory,” Journal of Arizona History 47, no. 3 (Autumn 2006): 273–98. In another incident, two robbers pulled their guns on the Santa Fe station agent at Glorieta in December 1888 and took $90 in cash and a $53.65 company check. The Las Vegas Daily Optic was less than sympathetic in opining, “any man who cannot defend himself from two assailants ought to be robbed.”

  10. Myrick, Railroads of Arizona, The Santa Fe Route, pp. 155–58, specifically, “All this hullabaloo,” p. 158.

  CHAPTER 20: THE BOOM GOES BUST

  1. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, pt. 2 (Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1975), p. 731.

  2. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 187, 191–93; labor issues in Waters, Steel Trails, pp. 313–15.

  3. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 195, 214–22, specifically, “amply and satisfactorily” and “are in such condition,” p. 218; “a success in every,” p. 220; “pending negotiations” and “is amply able,” p. 222.

  4. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 226–34, specifically, “no foundation in fact,” p. 228; for “off balance sheet” example, see pp. 231–32, indictment, p. 233. Reinhart was acquitted after the government failed to prove that he knew of the transactions.

  5. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 236–40, 246–49, specifically, “to rid the company,” p. 236. The new debt was structured with 4 percent bonds and an assortment of preferred stock and income bonds. Interest payments on the latter vehicles were tied to revenues and thus served to reduce fixed costs. Santa Fe stockholders were assessed 10 percent for every $100 of common stock, with these assessments becoming preferred stock. A pool of European investors agreed to buy out those shareholders who opposed the assessment.

  6. Denver Republican, December 22, 1893, quoting Railway Age, December 21, 1893.

  7. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 249–51, specifically, “believed in the good old doctrine,�
� p. 249.

  8. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 252, 258–61. The final end to the Atlantic and Pacific as a separate entity came after another round of foreclosures, when the Frisco purchased the old Central Division, some 112 miles largely in Indian Territory.

  9. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 263, 266, 286, 291, 298–300, 311.

  10. Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, pp. 173–76. San Francisco Examiner, January 30, 1895. Frank Norris published The Octopus in 1901. Although purportedly fiction, there was no mistaking the ugly characterization of the Southern Pacific in the best muckraking style of that day. Fortunately, histories such as Richard Orsi’s Sunset Limited offer a much more balanced view.

  11. Bryant, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, pp. 178–81; “the same thing”: Treadway, Cyrus K. Holliday, p. 243 (quoting Holliday to Strong, October 10, 1896).

  CHAPTER 21: STILL WEST FROM DENVER

  1. Bradley, Santa Fe, pp. 209–10, 246, 315; Athearn, Rebel of the Rockies, pp. 171, 173–74; John Lipsey, “How Hagerman Sold the Midland in 1890,” Denver Westerners Brand Book, 1956, pp. 267–85, specifically, “I do not suppose,” p. 271, and “it enables me,” p. 283. See also John Lipsey, “J. J. Hagerman, Building of the Colorado Midland,” Brand Book of the Denver Posse of the Westerners for 1954, pp. 95–115. The Santa Fe’s purchase price of the Midland was $2.4 million in stock and $1.6 million in cash.

  2. “Such another opportunity”: Denver Republican, January 12, 1900.

  3. “We have bought”: George Kennan, E. H. Harriman: A Biography, vol. 1 (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1967), pp. 240–41.

  4. Athearn, Rebel of the Rockies, pp. 194–95. Palmer’s generosity was first described in Fisher, A Builder of the West, pp. 303–4. There was apparently no public announcement of this generosity at the time, but Fisher reported a round of thank-you letters in the Palmer papers. These are not found in the Palmer Collection, but there is a letter from a Palmer crony, George Foster Peabody, that certainly captures the spirit: “I am however most heartily in favor of much ampler figures for all of them—for we are greatly indebted to their steadfast loyalty.” Palmer Collection, Box 5, FF 330 (Peabody to Palmer, unclear date; possibly November 5, 1900).