Chapters on the History of the Southern PacificDaggett, Stuart
History
Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific
Daggett, Stuart
Pacific railroads -- History; Railroads -- California -- History; Southern Pacific Company
This expectation was disappointed, as was the hope that the San
Francisco and San José would participate in the federal subsidies and
land grants provided in the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864. The
city of San Francisco did, however, subscribe $300,000 in city bonds to
San Francisco and San José Railroad stock, and the counties of Santa
Clara and San Mateo, $200,000 and $100,000, respectively. At this time
the Huntington group had no interests south of Sacramento. In 1869 the
San Francisco and San José was extended to Gilroy by a company known as
the Santa Clara and Pajaro Valley Railroad Company.
Southern Pacific Railroad Company
Shortly after the completion of the San Francisco and San José, another
company, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, was incorporated[166]
by local parties in San Francisco to build a line of railroad in as
direct a route as feasible from San Francisco to the town of San Diego,
through the counties of Santa Clara, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Tulare,
Los Angeles, and San Diego; thence eastward through the county of San
Diego to the eastern boundary of the state of California. It is quite
possible that this new company was organized in anticipation of further
legislation at Washington. At any rate in July, 1866, Congress granted
to the Southern Pacific Railroad, besides a right-of-way, ten alternate
sections of unreserved and unappropriated public lands on either
side of the road, in the state of California, on condition that it
construct a line, presumably from San Francisco, to a connection with
a projected railroad known as the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, which
was authorized to extend from the state of Missouri to the Pacific
Ocean. In case any portion of the twenty sections indicated should be
found to be occupied or reserved, the Southern Pacific was to be given
the privilege of selecting other lands within 20 miles of its road. The
company was to begin work within two years, and to complete not less
than 50 miles annually after the second year. No money or bond subsidy
was given.[167] By Act of July 25, 1868, Congress extended the time for
the construction of the Southern Pacific line, requiring the completion
of the first 30 miles by July 1, 1870, and subsequent construction of
20 miles annually.[168] This was plainly an enterprise of first-class
magnitude.
[Illustration: Map showing northern end of the San Francisco and San
José Railroad in 1862.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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