Seventy-Five Years of Progress - The Southern Pacific Railroad (1869-1944)

THE PUBLICATION of this historical sketch of the development of Southern Pacific seems particularly appropriate at this time when the railroad's organization has added, in terms of achievement, another outstanding chapter to the history of the road.

In taking over the office of president on December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President A. T. Mercier issued a message to Southern Pacific men and women saying that "our first duty is to our government in the war," and added:

"The job is being tackled by all hands in the traditional spirit that built our western link of America's transcontinental railroad — the same spirit that has since won through in every crisis of flood, storm and disaster. I know the men and women of our railroad. They have what it takes. Out on line, in the yards, in the shops and offices, day and night they will continue to do the greatest job in our history."

Such confidence was, indeed, well merited; for during the entire war period the Southern Pacific organization, despite serious handicaps of manpower and equipment shortages, kept unprecedented volumes of traffic moving to surpass any previous accomplishment in the company's existence.

With the return of peace, President Mercier has pledged that "all our resources of manpower and physical facilities will again be turned to furthering development of the area served by our lines and to provide progressive, friendly service to our customers."

Seventy-five years ago these lines were penned by the immortal Bret Harte heralding that day in May of 1869 when the Central Pacific woodburning locomotive [CPRR #60, "Jupiter"] from the West touched its pilot to the Union Pacific coalburner [UPRR #119] from the East to signal completion of the first transcontinental railroad. The story of the early beginnings of this great railroad project is the story of the West, the saga of individual initiative and courage that spanned a nation with bands of iron rail and nurtured the development of today's western empire.

Construction of the rail highway for the Iron Horse from the Pacific Coast to the Missouri River was one of man's greatest accomplishments. Its completion gave birth to a new era, and the expansion of its western lines is evidenced today in the far-flung properties of the Southern Pacific Company. Pioneer of transcontinental railroads, Southern Pacific had its origin in the Central Pacific Rail Road Company of California, incorporated June 28, 1861, to build the western portion of the Pacific Railroad. Construction began at Sacramento in 1863 following authorization by Congress in 1862. The original unit of the transportation system that today comprises more than 15,000 miles of rail lines in this country and Mexico, was built from Sacramento 690 miles over the Sierra Nevada Mountains and across Nevada to meet the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah, where the Last Spike was driven on May 10, 1869.

To an unknown editor in the little village of Ann Arbor, Michigan, belongs the credit for making in 1832 the first suggestion for a railroad that would span the continent from the Great Lakes to the Pacific. At that time less than 100 miles of rail lines had been built in the United States during the three years since the first public railroad [Baltimore & Ohio RR] was operated out of Baltimore.

The benefits of a transcontinental railroad, it seems, should have been obvious to all thinking men, but the idea took root only gradually and met with strenuous opposition. The first plan to receive consideration of Congress was one in 1836. Others followed, some of them having a short route to the rich Orient as the primary objective rather than being aimed at the development of the West.

Discovery of gold in 1848 focused world attention on California and the Pacific Coast region. The arduous overland journey across the plains by oxen or mules, and the long ocean voyage via Panama or around Cape Horn, brought to the early settlers a realization of their isolation from the remainder of the country. A growing sentiment in the West and East favored a railroad that would bind the nation closer together.

Southern Pacific is a monument to the enterprise and vision of Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins. These Sacramento merchants, famed in later years as the "Big Four," became impressed with plans for a railroad east over the Sierra as conceived by Theodore D. Judah, a young civil engineer. Typical of the courage and daring that characterized the successful exploits of many western pioneers, the four associates launched the project, unmatched in all the story of rail transportation, without any one of them ever having been remotely connected with a construction project of greater magnitude than the erection of their own store buildings. Against the advice of their friends and in the face of strong opposition and ridicule they threw their entire resources and personal credit into the project. How they accomplished the task is an epic chapter in the history of the West.

Stanford, 36 years old when first steps were taken in November, 1860, to organize a railroad company, was a dealer in groceries and provisions; Crocker, 38, had a dry goods store; Huntington, 39, and Hopkins, 47, were partners in a hardware establishment. From this prosaic early environment the two hardware merchants became financial geniuses; the weigher of sugar and tea developed into a master organizer and political leader; while the man who had stood behind a ribbon counter rose to command men in a construction undertaking that startled the engineering world.

Judah, 34, had completed in 1856 the 28-mile line of the Sacramento Valley Railroad from Sacramento to Folsom, first railroad operated in the far West. He was the first advocate of the Pacific Railroad who had practical railroad engineering knowledge to add to sincere enthusiasm. He took his plan to Congress on several occasions, made preliminary surveys over various routes through the Sierra, and had received a small amount of financial support from residents in the mountain towns. But his proposal was branded by many as fantastic or a vicious money-grabbing scheme. He failed to impress men with money to invest until he got the attention of the Sacramento merchants.

Four parties of engineers went into the mountains early in 1861 under Judah's direction. The reports led to incorporation and organization of the Central Pacific. Stanford, to be elected governor of California in September, 1861, was chosen president; Huntington became vice president; Hopkins, treasurer; and Judah, chief engineer. Crocker became one of the directors and was later general superintendent of construction. Judah again went to Washington and played a leading role in final passage of the Pacific Railroad bill. Huntington went to New York to try to raise money. He met with little encouragement for the enterprise seemed too risky; prospects of financial returns were too remote. Even the assurance of government aid through grants of land and the loan of federal money, left the Central Pacific organizers with a formidable task ahead of them. After passage of the bill, Huntington wired his associates: "We have drawn the elephant, now let us see if we can harness him."

In granting this aid to the Central Pacific and Union Pacific, Congress followed a federal policy already established, and one extended to several other railroads built before and after the Pacific Railroad was authorized. The financial aid was not a donation, but was in the form of United States 6% bonds which were a lien against the railroad property, with repayment to be made in thirty years. Central Pacific's debt to the government was computed at more than $58,000,000 in 1899, and by July, 1903, that debt had been paid in full. The land, with certain exceptions, included alternate sections twenty miles on each side of a 400-foot right of way, and ultimately the government profited immeasurably through its deal with the various railroads. Not only did the alternate sections of land retained by the government along the rail lines increase in value by reason of improved transportation and resultant development of great areas of public domain, but for decade after decade there was to be profit to the government in reduced charges for all government property, including mail, and for the transportation of troops of the United States, handled over the land grant portions of the railroads involved.

Certain revisions were made in 1940 but not in the provision that troops, military equipment and supplies be moved for 50 per cent less than standard fares and rates. These reductions on government business skyrocketed during World War II. By end of the war it was estimated the land grant rate reductions for all railroads reached a total in excess of one billion dollars, or more than eight times the $123,000,000 value of the lands at the time they were granted to the railroads. December 12, 1945, President Truman signed a bill repealing the remaining rate provisions of the land grant law.

The country to be opened by the railroad was then almost entirely a wilderness. All that was known of the region at that time discouraged such a venture. Mountain roads so steep that covered wagons had to be lowered down them by ropes were still fresh in the minds of emigrants who crossed the plains to settle in the West. Picks and shovels, black powder, wheelbarrows, one-horse dump carts, were the only aids to grading. Cutting a roadway through the rock walls of the Sierra was literally hand carving. There were no power tools of any kind, such as are common on big construction jobs today; even dynamite was not then in general use. Chinese laborers were swung in baskets over cliffs high above the American River to hew a footing so that workers could blast out a grade for the track in the mountain side. Tunnels were dug while the region was covered under snow packs often thirty feet deep.

All of the rolling equipment and most of the building materials had to be shipped 15,000 miles around Cape Horn from the East, a voyage of eight to ten months. At one time the Central Pacific had thirty ships on the high seas loaded with materials. White labor was scarce in California, for men were more interested in digging for gold than in working on a railroad. Although each of the four associates was a wealthy man, as wealth was counted in those days, their combined resources were totally inadequate to finance much more than a start in building and equipping the first forty miles of railroad which was necessary under terms of the federal bill before one dollar was available in government bonds. It is little wonder the world doubted this railroad could be built by four inexperienced country merchants in a land that was so lacking in money, men and materials.

Although New York capitalists were not interested in the railroad as an investment, they were impressed with the high credit rating the Sacramento businessmen held in the commercial world. Thus, by personally guaranteeing the interest on a limited number of Central Pacific bonds for ten years, the four associates raised enough money to start construction on a big scale.

The first rail was laid in Sacramento on October 26, 1863; the first locomotive, "Governor Stanford," went into service November 10, 1863; and the first 31 miles of railroad was in operation to Newcastle on June 10, 1864, when the first timetable was published (four days premature) announcing regular passenger and freight service.

Judah lived only long enough to see construction actually underway on the railroad that had been his great obsession. He contracted Panama fever while crossing the Isthmus, and died in New York City on November 2, 1863, a young man on the threshold of a distinguished career. [Judah's first assistant] Sam S. Montague succeeded him as chief engineer, [Lewis M. Clement was appointed first assistant chief engineer] with J. H. Strobridge as construction superintendent.

The builders soon faced serious financial difficulties. Money raised by Huntington in New York had been exhausted, mostly in the purchase of equipment and materials and in greatly increased cost of their transport around the Horn due to wartime conditions. Work never came to a complete stop, but there were days on end when there was not one cent in the company's treasury. It was at this time that an appeal was made for public support. The voters of three counties responded favorably, but strong opposing interests threw the bond proposition into court, and it was well into 1865 before the aid was available. Advantage could not be taken of a mild 1864-65 winter in the Sierra, otherwise the Central Pacific might have met the Union Pacific at Cheyenne instead of Promontory. Eleven months passed before the five miles between Newcastle and Auburn was opened to traffic May 13, 1865.

Beyond Auburn the forty-mile mark was passed and government bonds loaned the railroad could be turned into cash. There was a clamor for more men, and because of the scarcity of white labor, Crocker experimented with Chinese laborers. The Orientals proved so successful that hundreds were added to the construction gangs.

The beginning of 1866 saw the fight to overcome the Sierra on in earnest. Crocker decided to work the 1,659-foot Summit tunnel from four faces. A shaft was sunk and crews worked each way from the center while others dug from the entrances. Rock was so hard it took the better part of a year to dig the shaft deep enough to begin the laterals, and it was another year from then before the tunnel was completed. Altogether, 15 tunnels were bored through the Sierra.

Working conditions were difficult at all times, but the severe winters of 1865-6 and 1866-7 called for superhuman courage to keep things going. During the latter winter the only work possible was in the tunnels. It was during this winter that Crocker directed the tremendous but strategic undertaking of hauling and sledging three locomotives, forty cars, and material for forty miles of track over twenty-eight miles of tortuous mountain trails down into the Truckee River canyon where light snow made grading and track work possible. It was June of 1867 before the forces could be brought back into the mountains, where the grade in many places was still buried under heavy snow packs. By November the road was in operation to Summit station. Again the forces were transferred to the Truckee region. The first locomotive poked its nose over the California-Nevada state line on December 13, 1867, and by the end of the year there remained only a seven-mile gap of difficult construction over the Sierra Summit at an elevation of 7,017 feet, and on the ridges above Donner Lake, to link the Truckee work into a through line.

Difficulties in keeping the line cleared of snow in the high Sierra region convinced the builders that the problem must be solved before trains could be operated successfully, so it was decided to build snowsheds over the tracks. Experimental sheds were erected in the summer of 1867. Construction that started in the spring of 1868 was completed in the fall of 1869. Forty miles of sheds were eventually erected, the nearly solid covering over the tracks once prompting a boomer brakeman to remark: "I've railroaded all over the world, but this is the first time I've ever railroaded in a barn." (Powerful rotary snow plows and improved snow-fighting methods gradually reduced the snowshed mileage in succeeding years, and today only eight miles remain.)

The year 1868 was one of feverish activity for the Central Pacific forces. Crocker announced a construction program of a "mile of track every working day," a goal that actually was surpassed. The race with the Union Pacific was on in earnest. Each company was alert to the advantage in future earnings from every additional mile of railroad built. The tough work in solid rock above Donner Lake was completed in the spring of 1868 and the Sierra had been conquered. On June 19 the road was opened to Reno, Nevada, a town-site staked out by the railroad's engineers.

The route ahead was over a terrain that offered none of the difficulties encountered in the mountains. The "mile a day" program went into high gear. Crocker's "pets," as the 14,000 Chinese workers were dubbed, together with some 2000 whites and about 6000 horses, responded with superhuman effort. Canvas towns sprang up to live but a few days as rail-head was pushed steadily eastward. The rival builders could not agree where their tracks should join and for many miles, far in advance of the track layers, the grading crews often worked within a few yards of each other on parallel lines. The government's railroad commissioners finally ruled that the rails should join in the vicinity of Promontory Summit in the barren, low hills beyond Great Salt Lake in northern Utah.

Most intense construction came in the early months of 1869. One day Union Pacific's Irish "terriers" laid six miles of track. Crocker's "pets," paced by Central Pacific's own Irish track builders, followed with seven. This was bettered by the rival camp and brought the boast from Crocker that his men could lay ten miles of track in a day. It is said that his wager of $10,000 was "covered" by Thomas C. Durant, vice president of the Union Pacific. Crocker and Strobridge made careful plans. Ties were laid several miles in advance and materials were hauled ahead to strategic points. April 28, 1869, was the day. While a number of officers of both companies, including Gen. G. M. Dodge, chief engineer of the UP, several newspaper correspondents, and workers from the rival camp looked on, the Central Pacific forces, working with military precision and organization, laid ten miles and 56 feet of track in a little less than twelve hours, a feat that has never been equaled. This day's performance brought the CP rail-head past Camp Victory, later Rozel, a few miles from Promontory.

Stanford was the principal instigator of the Last Spike ceremony on May 10, 1869, an historic even that will live forever in the annals of colossal construction achievements. Present were the few hundred workers left to complete the job, four companies of the 21st Infantry and regimental band from near-by Fort Douglas, a sprinkling of settlers, a few officials of the two companies, their guests, and a photographer. On his special train from Sacramento, Stanford brought the famous Golden Spike as a gift from David Hewes of San Francisco, also a highly polished laurel tie, silver sledge-hammer and shovel. Special spikes of precious metals were presented on behalf of other western states. All of these glistening mementoes played an honorary part in the program. Many cities celebrated the occasion, and throughout the nation knots of people gathered around telegraph offices to get the final flash from far-off Utah. Telegraph lines at Promontory were connected to a specially prepared hammer and spike so that Stanford's tapping on the last spike sent a click-click-click over the wires to signal completion of the Pacific Railroad at 12:45 p. m., Promontory time. Central Pacific's bonnet-stacked, woodburning locomotive "Jupiter" and the slim-stacked coal-burning No. 119 of Union Pacific were moved up so their pilots touched, while men climbed aboard to have then" pictures taken as the two chief engineers of the gigantic project shook hands heartily.

The laurel tie used in the Last Spike ceremony was destroyed in the San Francisco fire of 1906; the silver hammer and sledge are at Palo Alto, Calif., in the Stanford Museum, which institution also owns the famed Golden Spike but keeps it in the vaults of the Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco. [The Last Spike is currently on display at the Museum which was renamed the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University in 1998.]

The first passenger train from Omaha to Sacramento was run two days later, and on May 15 regular transcontinental freight and passenger service was inaugurated. The first daily passenger train between Sacramento and Omaha was known as the "Atlantic Express" east-bound and the "Pacific Express" westbound. The trip between Sacramento and San Francisco was by river steamer. Connection was made at Omaha with trains for Chicago, St. Louis and eastern points. Passengers completed the 3,167-mile Sacramento-New York trip in seven days flat, the 168-hour schedule of elapsed time not taking into consideration the three hours variation in time zones that would be effective today. (Standard time was established in United States and Canada on November 18, 1883, prior to which date every railroad ran its trains by the local time of the city in which its headquarters were located, or on some other arbitrary standard.) [See our page "Railway & Travel Guides and the Pacific Railroad" for CPRR passenger schedules and details of the adoption of "Railroad Standard Time" in 1883.]

No passenger or freight cars operated through from Sacramento to Omaha in early years of the transcontinental road, except for an occasional "de luxe" special train. During the first few months the line was opened, passengers transferred with their baggage from Central Pacific cars to those of the Union Pacific at Promontory. After Central Pacific purchased 47.5 miles of track the UP had built east of Promontory and leased an additional 5.11 miles, the transfer point and terminal of both companies was established at Ogden.

Construction of the line had progressed so rapidly that Central Pacific was not equipped with sleeping cars during the first weeks of operation. It was not until June 4, 1869, that the first of the company's Silver Palace Sleeping Cars arrived in Sacramento from the eastern manufacturer. The Union Pacific operated Pullman's Hotel Cars and Palace Sleeping Cars over its portion of the Pacific Railroad. All cars were wooden, lighted by candles and coal oil lamps, and heated by coal stoves at the ends of each car. (The nation's first all-steel passenger coach was completed by SP at its Sacramento Shops in July, 1906.) Primitive and crude as such equipment was by present-day standards, it represented a great advance in its day, and in fact contemporary travel guide books described the Silver Palace Sleeping Cars as "elegant," with "appointments of a home drawing room" and such comforts that one slept "amid the easy roll of the car as sweetly and refreshingly as ever upon the home bed.'' Central Pacific operated its own sleeping cars until July 1, 1883, when all such equipment was transferred to the Pullman Palace Car Company.

There were no dining cars on the pioneer trains. Most passengers, particularly those in coaches, got their meals at depot eating houses located for convenient train stops. Many followed the guide book suggestions to bring well-stocked baskets of food. Central Pacific provided buffets on most of its Silver Palace cars, as did Pullman on its Hotel Cars. The buffet was at one end of the car, and at first only canned edibles were available to supplement other moderate service. Usually there was a porter and cook on each car, but often the porter served in the two capacities. Tables were placed between seats of the sleeping car sections. The first separate dining cars in regular service were not operated by Pullman on the Overland Route until early in the '90s, and then only between Ogden and Truckee. The three cars used on this run were acquired by SP in 1894, from which date the railroad has operated its own dining car service.

The original route of the Central Pacific north of Great Salt Lake became a branch line in 1904 when SP opened a shorter main line over a trestle and fill built across the lake – the Lucin Cut-off. Today the pioneer route around the lake is entirely abandoned. The Last Spike was "unspiked" during a ceremony at Promontory on September 8, 1942, the track materials for 120 miles between Corinne and Lucin being salvaged for the war effort. Only a simple pyramid-type concrete monument remains in a nearly deserted region to mark the historic spot. [The Golden Spike National Historic Site was established at Promontory Summit in 1965 by the National Park Service.]

Just what the Big Four associates envisioned in May of 1869 as their ultimate railroad system is not known. They had taken certain steps toward expansion west and north from Sacramento, and had become interested in other California railroad ventures, but the future apparently looked none too bright to them. What had loomed as lucrative traffic at the outset of their project began to fade away when Nevada mining activity, particularly the Comstock Lode operations, went into a temporary decline and when opening of the Suez Canal diverted heavy tonnage of the Oriental trade that otherwise would have moved across the continent by rail to Pacific ports. Stanford testified in later years that he and his associates would gladly have sold out in 1869 for ten cents on the dollar, but the Central Pacific in operation was no more attractive to "smart" investors than it had been before the first rail was laid.

Although the Big Four continued building, it is doubtful they dreamed that in another eighteen years their 690-mile pioneer unit would expand to some 5,500 miles of lines radiating from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Portland, Ogden and New Orleans, with their own steamship lines plying between New Orleans, Havana and New York. This made Southern Pacific truly "transcontinental" with what was then the most extensive transportation system in the world. Much less could they have foreseen that the Promontory Last Spike was to be only one of many "last spikes" commemorating in succeeding decades the building of new lines into other regions as the Central Pacific founders and their successors opened vast western and southwestern areas to amazing development.

This expansion, in its initial stages, saw enfolded into Central Pacific's organization several independently established companies in central California, some of which were already in operation, while others existed only on paper. Their corporate identity, historic background, and properties owned would involve too much explanation to be recorded here. It was through their acquisition, and by new construction, however, that the Big Four gained entrance to the San Francisco Bay area; established the main north-south routes through California into Oregon and the Southwest; and from which emerged the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, also the Oregon and California Railroad Company, to augment the Central Pacific in carrying out the vast construction program of the '70s and '80s. From these pioneer companies emerged the present Southern Pacific Company.

While construction was under way on the transcontinental route over the Sierra and across Nevada to Promontory, Utah, the Big Four began extension of the line between Sacramento and the San Francisco bay. This line through Stockton and Niles Canyon was over a route originally projected by the Western Pacific Railroad (no connection with the later company of the same name) whose federal authority for construction had been taken over by the Central Pacific. Transcontinental trains reached San Francisco Bay over the pioneer Oakland and Alameda "local" lines whose rail-ferry service to San Francisco had been in operation since 1863-64.

The Oakland "local" line was the San Francisco and Oakland Railroad Company, incorporated October 21, 1861, which began operation of its combination rail-ferry service on September 2, 1863, from Broadway in Oakland along Seventh Street to Oakland Wharf at Gibbon's Point and thence by ferry boat to the Davis Street landing between Broadway and Pacific wharfs in San Francisco. To meet competition of a rival ferry line on the Oakland Estuary "creek route," the railroad built a bridge (later filled in) across San Antonio Creek and extended its service to the town of San Antonio (now East Oakland) on September 28,1864,

The Alameda "local" line was the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad Company, commonly called the "Encinal Road," incorporated March 25, 1863, which on August 25, 1864, began operation of its rail-ferry service from the Davis Street ferry landing in San Francisco to Alameda Wharf at the foot of Pacific Street (since abandoned), thence along what is now Lincoln Avenue to High Street, in Alameda. Extensions were opened to San Leandro on March 2, 1865, and to Hayward on the following August 24. First ferry steamer on the Oakland service was the "Contra Costa," and the "Sophie McLane" inaugurated the Alameda service.

Overland passenger service was first operated to Alameda Wharf on September 6, 1869, and then transferred to Oakland Wharf the following November 8. Ferry boats carried passengers across the bay to San Francisco. The two-mile Oakland Long Wharf, opened for traffic January 16, 1871, remained the terminal for passenger trains until the present-day Oakland Pier (earlier known as the "Mole") was opened January 22, 1882. The route through Niles Canyon remained the main line for transcontinental and San Joaquin Valley trains until a line with less grade along the upper San Francisco bay shore through Berkeley, Richmond, Port Costa and Martinez was completed to Tracy on September 8, 1878. Early the following year a line was opened from Benicia to connect at Suisun with the pioneer California Pacific's railroad from South Vallejo to Sacramento (to be described later) and on December 28, 1879, the car-transfer steamer "Solano," largest ferry boat in the world, began the transfer of trains across Carquinez Straits between Port Costa and Benicia to provide a shorter main line between Sacramento and the San Francisco bay cities.

The central California area, already the starting point of the pioneer line over the Sierra later to be known as Southern Pacific's Overland Route through the mountains, also became the hub from which was projected the lines that now form the railroad's Shasta Route into the Northwest and the Sunset Route through the Southwest to New Orleans. The Big Four had the added distinction of giving the nation its second transcontinental rail route when Santa Fe joined the Southern Pacific at Deming, N. M., on March 1, 1881; the third route through connection with the Texas & Pacific at Sierra Blanca, Tex., on January 1, 1882; and the fourth when the Sunset Route was opened to traffic on February 5, 1883.

Start of Sunset Route

Construction on the western end of the Sunset Route was started December 31, 1869, branching from the transcontinental line at the newly established town of Lathrop. Only the most optimistic hopes could have prompted the Big Four to build into the San Joaquin Valley. The great broad region now so productive and populous was then nearly unoccupied. When looking over the proposed route, Stanford and Hopkins and their engineers traveled the upper section of the valley on horseback and camped out. For miles and miles they rode without seeing any sign of habitation, except an occasional sheep border's shack. Many of the valley's large cities of today—Fresno, Merced, Modesto, Tulare and others—were just "railroad towns" in the '70s, founded by the railroad's builders. Traffic was inaugurated to Modesto on November 8,1870; to Merced, January 15,1872; to Fresno, May 28,1872; to Tulare, July 25, 1872; and to Sumner (now East Bakersfield) on November 8, 1874.

For more than two hundred miles the builders had easy construction through the valley, but south of Bakersfield the Tehachapi mountains towered ahead of them. Here the engineers faced the problem of raising the railroad 2,734 feet from the valley at Caliente to scale the mountain pass at an elevation of 4,025 feet in about 16 air-line miles. This feat was accomplished by swerving 28 miles of track back and forth up the mountainside around gradual curves on a 2.2 per cent grade through 18 tunnels. At one point the track was looped over itself in a remarkable stroke of engineering skill directed by William Hood, who had by then become chief assistant engineer. The road was opened through Tehachapi out onto the desert to Mojave on August 8, 1876.

Before this date the Big Four and their engineers had pondered over the exact route for the railroad through southern California. At one time it was considered advisable to leave Los Angeles several miles to the west of the main line. The great metropolis of today was then a sleepy, little Mexican city with a population of less than 10,000. Trade of the area was being well served by steamers and sailing vessels; and, what was more important at the moment, the most direct and cheapest route for the transcontinental line would have been through the Cajon and San Gorgonio passes to the Colorado River, with a branch line later into Los Angeles.

Vanguard of the famed Los Angeles boosters, however, had arrived even at that early date. The citizenry was not entirely asleep. Numerous conferences were held with the railroad's top men, and a proposition was submitted to the county's voters that won favor in an election on November 5, 1872. As a result, Southern Pacific acquired a 22-mile railroad from Los Angeles to Wilmington, opened in October, 1869, and construction was begun during 1873 on lines north and east out of the city. Trains were operated to Colton on July 16, 1875, and to Indio (then Indian Wells) on May 29,1876. San Fernando had train service on January 21, 1874, and the line was extended northward through a 6,975-foot tunnel, then the second longest railroad bore in the country. It took nearly sixteen months to complete the tunnel, and by that time the gangs building south from Mojave had reached Soledad Canyon. Special trains brought official leaders from Los Angeles and San Francisco to a ceremony held at the little station of Lang on September 5, 1876, where Charles Crocker, then president of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, drove the "last spike." Through service was inaugurated the next day.

Moving on eastward from Indio, the railroad reached the west bank of the Colorado River opposite Yuma on May 23, 1877. There was delay in getting military authority to lay tracks across the Yuma Indian reservation, and it was September 30 that year before the bridge was completed so trains could operate into Yuma, a village known as Arizona City prior to 1873. Here rails of the SP were to have joined those of the Texas & Pacific, one of several railroads then holding, or seeking, federal authority to build lines from various sections of the country to the Pacific Coast. But since rail-head of the T & P was at a standstill far off in Texas, SP continued building eastward.

Yuma was the railroad terminus for more than a year. Connection was made there with the Southwest's historic stage coach and freighting lines, first of which were the Southern Overland Mail opened in July 1857, over a route from San Antonio to San Diego, and the Butterfield Stages on a route from San Francisco to Tipton, Mo., with rail connection to St. Louis. John Butterfield made the initial 2,759-mile trip in 24 days, 20 hours, 30 minutes, leaving San Francisco September 16, 1858. [See also our page "Very Early American Express Co. Shipping Receipt" dated August 6, 1853.]

SP's tracks were pushed on from Yuma in November, 1878. At that time Tucson was the only town of any size all the way to El Paso, about 560 miles. Only stage coach and freight stations dotted the route, except at a short distance northerly there were the villages of Florence and Tempe, also the store, blacksmith shop, and a few buildings at a crossroads, the site of present-day Phoenix.

Arrival of the first train in Tucson on March 20, 1880, was celebrated with great enthusiasm, and the banners of all nations fluttered from the outer walls of the ancient pueblo. As the train approached the little city of 2,000 inhabitants, a salute of 38 guns was fired and a cavalry band burst into a medley of patriotic tunes. Charles Crocker added another "last spike" to his collection.

As the railroad continued on from Tucson a military escort accompanied the construction forces over a portion of the route, for the Apaches were then on the warpath. The line was opened to Benson on June 22, 1880; through what is now Willcox, to Lordsburg on October 18; to Deming, December 18, and to El Paso on May 19, 1881.

Here another tracklaying race developed. The Texas & Pacific line had reached Dallas and was pushing westward rapidly to check the drive of the SP into Texas. In the mountainous country southeast of El Paso there was but one logical route for a railroad into the valley of the Rio Grande. The first company to lay its rails through the pass would have undisputed right-of-way from Sierra Blanca to El Paso. This objective was won by the SP forces, and the road opened into Sierra Blanc on November 25, 1881.

Southern Pacific's present-day network of 4,332 miles of lines in Texas and Louisiana represents the consolidation of numerous separate companies, two of which had portions of their lines in operation long before either the Central Pacific or Southern Pacific were organized in California. The colorful history of these lines is a story in itself, little of which can be related in this sketch.

The main stem of today's Sunset Route between El Paso and New Orleans was built by four companies, or their predecessors:—the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, extending from El Paso to Houston, was constructed both westward from Houston and eastward from El Paso; the Texas and New Orleans Railroad eastward from Houston to Orange; the Louisiana Western Railroad westward from Lafayette to Orange; and the Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company westward from New Orleans to Lafayette. These companies formally came under management and operation of the owners of the Central Pacific just prior to the completion of the Sunset Route, and control was later transferred to the Southern Pacific.

It was about 1879 that C. P. Huntington purchased for his Big Four associates an interest in the GH&SA, as first move of the Pacific Coast builders into the southwestern states. Pioneer unit of the GH&SA was the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Co., which began its existence on February 11, 1850, and whose 30-mile line in Texas between Harrisburg and Richmond was one of the first two rail lines operated west of the Mississippi River. By February 5, 1877, the GH&SA was operating into San Antonio. Construction between there and El Paso was carried on partly by GH&SA and partly by the construction forces that built the SP line from the Pacific Coast.

Col. T. W. Peirce, president of the GH&SA, drove the last spike January 12, 1883, two and a half miles west of the original Pecos River bridge near the confluence of the Pecos with the Rio Grande, on a section of the original line that was abandoned in 1892 when the Pecos River high bridge (replaced by a new bridge December 21, 1944) was opened to traffic. First through passenger trains over the newly completed Sunset Route between San Francisco and New Orleans left the respective cities on February 5, 1883.

At New Orleans the SP rail lines connected with ships of the Morgan Line, one of America's oldest shipping concerns, dating from the late '40s. The flag of Morgan continued to grace the foremast after ships of the line sailed under management of the Southern Pacific Steamship Lines in freight service between New Orleans, Houston, Galveston and New York, Boston, New Bedford, Baltimore and Norfolk. Passenger service was inaugurated between New Orleans and New York in 1885, and for many years (until 1941) the voyage of "a hundred golden hours at sea" was an alluring attraction on SP's transcontinental Sunset Route.

This sketch now turns back to the '60s and again to central California where, at Marysville in Sacramento Valley, SP's Shasta Route was born. The bustling little pioneer city rivaled Sacramento as a center of railroad enthusiasm in the '50s and '60s. Companies were organized and some construction done in that section of the state, but it was not until the Big Four got behind one of the projects that Marysville greeted its first train from Sacramento, via Junction (now Roseville) and Lincoln on June 1, 1869. Marysville promoters had earlier launched an ambitious plan for a railroad via Knights Landing, Davisville (now Davis) and Suisun to Vallejo, and thence to San Francisco by boat. During 1859-60 the road was graded about 60 miles to Suisun. Money could not be raised for rail and equipment so the project was halted until advent of the California Pacific Railroad, strongly financed by English capital, as a competitor to the Big Four's Central Pacific, gave Marysville its second rail line in March, 1870, linked with the "Cal-P" rail-steamer system to Sacramento, Vallejo and San Francisco. Central Pacific acquired control of this system about August, 1871.

The Marysville project that launched today's Shasta Route was the California & Oregon Railroad Co., temporarily organized in 1863 and incorporated June 30, 1865, to build to Portland. Preliminary surveys were run, congressional support obtained, and Oregon personages brought into the enterprise, which was headed by Simon J. Elliott.

The Oregon faction split into two rival groups. Each took the identical name of Oregon Central Railroad Company and each broke ground at Portland in April, 1868. But the group headed by Joseph Gaston, and backed principally by Portland men, started its line on the west side of the Willamette River, while the group sponsored mostly by Salem interests favored the east side of the river. The auspicious beginnings were but mere gestures, for neither group could go far without the federal aid authorized by Congress in July, 1866. A bitter legal and political tussle was under way when Ben Holladay, colorful westerner fresh from lucrative exploits with Pony Express, stage coach and steamship ventures, cast his lot with the "East Side" company.

Under his leadership the "east siders" won federal favor, but the summer of 1869 found his company far short of the goal of 20 miles that must be in operation before Christmas Day to comply with all provisions of the Congressional Act. The situation called for fast action and Holladay delivered in a grand manner. The first rail was laid October 26, 1869, and the first locomotive, "J. B. Stephens," rolled onto the rails November 11. Biggest job was a 380-foot bridge across the Clackamas River. The structure was well along when high flood waters damaged it badly. While reconstruction was rushed, a small locomotive was floated across the river so that rail laying could proceed on the other side. On December 24 the last spike was driven in the first 20 miles of the road, and next day the "J. B. Stephens" crossed the Clackamas bridge to give the "East Side" company a definite victory. There was no construction on the "West Side" line until it, too, came under Holladay's wing.

Before continuing with his line on the east side of the river during 1870, Holladay had frustrated an attempt of a rival company to build from Astoria across the state to connect in Nevada with the Central Pacific Overland Route; had obtained substantial backing from capitalists in Germany; had bought out the "West Side" company; and on March 16,1870, had reorganized his entire enterprise as the Oregon & California Railroad Company. The railroad was a great attraction at Oregon's annual state fair at Salem to which point the O&C began operation on September 29, 1870. "The toot of the locomotive whistle any hour of the day," stated one newspaper, "never fails to start crowds of sightseers toward the tracks, and the arrival or departure of a train calls out hundreds of people who never saw that style of wagon before."

Trains were in operation to Salem depot on October 11 and to Albany on December 25,1870; to Harrisburg, June 25, and to Eugene on October 15, 1871, when the 345-mile stage coach journey to the California terminus of the railroad was cut to five days. The railroad reached Roseburg December 3, 1872. There construction was halted nine years. Holladay failed financially. Money acquired by sale of bonds in advance of construction had been spent with reckless abandon. Traffic revenue from the sparsely settled region was not sufficient to meet expenses, and when bond interest could not be met in 1873, Holladay was forced out and the property taken over by the German investors. Prior to this the "West Side" line was operated from Portland to Hillsboro on December 23, 1871, but it was January 28,1880, before trains were run through from McMinnville to Corvallis.

The German bondholders sent Henry Villard to Oregon to look after then-railroad interests. In succeeding years he became a national figure in transportation affairs. The entire Northwest was his field of operation, with the pioneer O&C line but one of his enterprises that included not only railroads but also steamship operations along the Pacific Coast and on the Columbia River. He was president of the Northern Pacific when that company completed its transcontinental line into Portland during August, 1883, and was the organizer and leading figure in the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, later a unit of the Union Pacific line into Portland.

In 1876 he approached the Big Four with a proposition to buy the O&C and complete the railroad between the two states, but Huntington and his associates were not then interested. It was not until June, 1881, that construction was resumed on the O&C south of Roseburg. Trains were operated to Glen-dale May 13, 1883; to Grants Pass, December 2; through Medford to Phoenix, February 25,1884; and to Ashland, May 4. At this point Villard's regime crashed. The O&C was forced into receivership and on July 1, 1887, the properties were formally acquired under lease by the Southern Pacific.

North From Marysville Construction of the California portion of the line to Oregon was begun north from Marysville in October, 1869. Trains were operated to Chico on July 2, 1870; to Tehama, August 28, 1871; Red Bluff, December 6, 1871, and to Redding on September 1, 1872, where the terminus remained 12 years while the builders in Oregon were in and out of the financial wringer. Work was resumed from Redding in April, 1883, and heavy construction into the Siskiyou mountains was undertaken. Trains were operated to Dunsmuir, August 23, 1886, and to Hornbrook near the state line on May 1, 1887. During that year Southern Pacific pushed construction simultaneously from Hornbrook north and from Ashland south. Summit of the Siskiyous was crossed at an elevation of 4,133 feet. A 3,108-foot tunnel at the summit was the longest of 18 bores.

Track was laid over curvatures reaching up to 14 degrees on a maximum grade of 3.3 per cent. There were 100 miles of curved track in a distance of 171 miles, and north of Redding the Sacramento River was crossed 17 times. The "last spike" ceremony on December 17, 1887, was staged in the south end of the railroad yard at Ashland. Charles Crocker again had the distinction of adding the finishing touch to another vital rail link amid the cheering of a large delegation brought by special trains from Portland and San Francisco. The rugged stage coach journey that had taken seven days between Portland and Sacramento in 1869 was now cut to 38 hours by train.

Also during 1887 an extension was built from Saugus on the San Joaquin Valley line and opened for traffic to Santa Paula on February 8, to Ventura May 18, to Carpinteria July 1, and on August 19 practically the entire population of the little city of Santa Barbara gathered at the new station to greet special trains that brought distinguished visitors from San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities to join in celebrating the arrival of the Iron Horse.

An important Southern Pacific acquisition on July 1, 1887, was the South Pacific Coast property in California, which included more than 100 miles of main and branch line narrow gauge railroad from Oakland and Alameda to Santa Cruz, ferry boat service on San Francisco Bay, and three miles of horse-drawn street car, freight and passenger service between Newark and Centerville. Built by Alfred E. Davis for James G. Fair and the latter's mining associates of Comstock Lode fame, the company was incorporated March 25,1876. The immediate objective was Santa Cruz, but it was the intention to extend the line down Salinas Valley and across the Coast Range mountains to an ultimate connection with the Denver & Rio Grande, which at that time was a narrow gauge line building westward.

Starting point of the South Pacific Coast line was at Dumbarton Point on San Francisco Bay near Newark. Construction was commenced there in May, 1876, and the line opened into San Jose the latter part of the following year. Building continued through Los Gatos (service begun June 1, 1878) to a connection near Big Trees with the eight-mile Santa Cruz and Felton line, which had been independently built and in operation to "Old" Felton since October, 1875, and which was acquired by the Davis-Fair interests. In the meantime construction had been under way south from San Francisco Bay, starting from a wharf at Alameda Point. This 25-mile section to Newark, together with ferry service across the bay to San Francisco, was placed in service June 1, 1878, and through trains to Santa Cruz were in operation May 15,1880.

Service to Webster Street in Oakland was begun May 30, 1881, over a bridge across San Antonio Creek (the Estuary), the line later being extended to 14th and Franklin Streets and opened to traffic October 1, 1886. Bay terminal of the narrow gauge was moved March 14, 1884, to a new pier on the south bank of the Creek, which trestle was later filled in to become Alameda Mole. (During 1906-07 the line was changed to standard gauge. Heavy storms of 1939-40 did such extensive damage to tracks and tunnels in Los Gatos canyon that SP was granted authority on September 20, 1940, to abandon the poorly patronized 15-mile portion from Los Gatos to a point about nine miles from Santa Cruz.)

The Coast Line as it exists today was not opened through to Los Angeles until after the turn of the century. This route had its origin in the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad, which was opened between those two cities on January 16, 1864. Some of the founders of this company then organized the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, which was incorporated on December 2, 1865, and in the following year authorized by Congress to build south through the Santa Clara, San Benito and San Joaquin valleys to the California state line near Needles, where it would meet the Atlantic & Pacific (Santa Fe) then projecting its road westward. The original organizers did no construction, but sold their interests to the Big Four of the Central Pacific, which had in 1868 acquired the pioneer line between San Francisco and San Jose. During 1870 the Big Four reorganized the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and under its name carried through much of the construction already referred to in this sketch.

Early in 1868 construction was begun on the line south of San Jose and on March 13, 1869 trains were operating to Gilroy. It was the intention to follow the proposed route through Pacheco Pass into the San Joaquin 'Valley, but the cost of construction and operation over the mountainous section of the Coast Range, also the uncertainty of local traffic developing on the far western slope of the valley, halted further work over that route after the road had been opened to Hollister on July 13, 1871, and to the terminus at Tres Pinos on August 12,1873. The main line south from Gilroy was opened to Pajaro (Watsonvllle Jct.) on November 27, 1871; to Salinas on November 1, 1872; and to Soledad on August 12, 1873. There the terminus remained for thirteen years while construction forces concentrated on completing the line through the San Joaquin Valley and eastward from Los Angeles, as already described.

It was 1886 before work could be resumed again south from Soledad. Trains were operating to King City on July 20 that year, to Paso Robles on October 31, and to Templeton on November 16. As the year 1887 ended, heavy construction was under way in the Santa Lucia mountains north of San Luis Obispo.

With the Shasta Route added to its Overland and Sunset Routes, and with a portion of its Coast Line completed, the framework of Southern Pacific's ultimate system had begun to take shape. It was, of course, but a skeleton framework; for, in reaching its present-day status, the 5,500 miles of railroad operated at the end of 1887 was to be increased nearly threefold with vast expansions to develop and serve SP's far-flung territory through new construction and through the acquisition of other railroad properties. Southern Pacific and its far western territory were growing up together; its history intimately associated with the communities it served.

Before proceeding with the history covering the construction of new lines and expansion of the Central Pacific-Southern Pacific system beyond the end of 1887, attention should be given the corporate re-organization effected during 1884-85 which brought numerous pioneer companies under the single banner of the Southern Pacific Company of today.

Prior to this re-organization, all the rail and steamer lines originated or acquired by the Big Four associates had been operated under lease by the Central Pacific. However, gradual expansion of properties under the name of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company from the Pacific Coast through the Southwest with affiliated lines to New Orleans and by steamship lines to the Atlantic Coast, had made that company the stronger organization from a traffic producing standpoint. This factor no doubt influenced selection of the name for the new company.

Southern Pacific Company was created March 17, 1884, by special Act of the Legislature of Kentucky, and its formal organization was effected on August 14 following meetings in New York City. Long-term leases to Southern Pacific Company were thereafter executed covering properties of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Central Pacific Railroad Company, and all other companies of common control.

As a personal venture, Huntington had acquired control of the Chesapeake & Ohio railroad during 1869, and at the re-organization meetings he tried unsuccessfully to interest his associates in joining him; nor were they agreeable to the suggestion that the C&O be included with Southern Pacific in the creation of a railroad system under one management extending from the Pacific to the Atlantic seaboards.

Principal officers of the new company, elected with President Stanford at the first stockholders' meeting on April 8, 1885, included: Huntington and Crocker, 1st and 2nd vice presidents, respectively, each with offices in New York City; Timothy Hopkins (foster son of Mark Hopkins), treasurer; J. C. Stubbs, traffic manager; A. N. Towne, general manager of the 3,004 miles of Pacific System lines west of El Paso and Ogden; and A. C. Hutchinson, general manager of the 1,692 miles of Atlantic System lines east of El Paso. Five years later Huntington was elected president and took over complete operations of the company, while Stanford, who had been elected U. S. senator from California in 1885, assumed a nominal role in the railroad's affairs as chairman of the executive committee.

During these years much attention was given Central Pacific's probable ability to meet payment in 1895 of the first of the government bonds for money loaned to aid in constructing the western portion of the first transcontinental line east from Sacramento, California, to Promontory, Utah. The Thurman Act of 1878 specified a sinking fund plan for retirement of the government bonds, the merit of which was strongly debated; and in 1887 the Pacific Railroad Commission was named to investigate affairs of all the railroads which had received federal aid during their construction. Government spokesmen were frankly pessimistic about receiving payment and anticipated that the Central Pacific Railroad Company would be obliged to go into receivership. Final outcome was that an agreement for settlement of the debt was adopted early in 1899, calling for organization of a new Central Pacific Railway Company to take the place of the Big Four's original company, and the issuance by the new company of $125,000,000 in bonds, all of which were guaranteed by Southern Pacific Company. Through this endorsement the finally computed Central Pacific debt to the government of about $58,813,000 was paid in full by Southern Pacific in July, 1908.

Southern Pacific Company stands today with a remarkable record among major railroads in never having gone through receivership and in never having defaulted a financial obligation.

During the twelve and a half years after 1887 a total of 2,630 miles of lines were added to Southern Pacific's operations, about 70 per cent of it being on the Pacific System. The principal western additions included considerable new construction and line acquisitions on both sides of the San Joaquin Valley in California; stock purchase of the 300-mile narrow gauge Carson & Colorado railroad in Nevada and eastern California; completion of the Coast Line in California from San Francisco to Santa Barbara; construction and acquisition of a number of short main and branch lines in southern California; and acquisition of the narrow gauge Oregonian Railway lines on the east and west sides of the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

The Atlantic System in Texas and Louisiana added 522 miles to its operations during the same twelve and a half year period. However, not included in this increase were the separately operated, but closely affiliated, 668 miles of the Houston & Texas Central, the pioneer "Central" road serving northern and central Texas; nor the 687 miles of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway serving southern portions of Texas. Both these properties were later to be included in the Atlantic System lines.

Expanding into Mexico, Southern Pacific, through a reciprocal lease with the Santa Fe, had acquired the old Sonora Railway between Nogales and Guaymas and its Arizona connection to Benson, in exchange for the 242-mile main line which Southern Pacific had completed in 1883 from Mojave to Needles. Under terms of a lease dated July 15,1898, the Santa Fe obtained joint operating rights over SP's line across the Tehachapi Pass between Mojave and Bakersfield.

The turn of the century brought to Southern Pacific the next major phase in its development, and also brought new personalities into the management of the railroad's properties. Huntington was the last survivor of the quartet of Sacramento merchants whose courage and sagacity had created the western portions of the nation's first transcontinental rail routes, and who were to become immortal in the annals of western achievement.

Last of Big Four Huntington was recognized as one of the world's outstanding industrial leaders when death came to him suddenly on August 13, 1900. Mark Hopkins, oldest of the group, died March 29, 1878; Charles Crocker on August 14, 1888; and Leland Stanford on June 21, 1893, while in his second term as United States Senator and eight years after founding Stanford University at Palo Alto, California.

At the time of Huntington's death, Southern Pacific was operating more than 8000 miles of railroad extending from Portland, Ore., to Guaymas, Mex., and from Pacific Coast cities to Ogden and New Orleans. Its steamship lines operated from Gulf of Mexico ports to New York and Havana. Southern Pacific was then the longest and one of the major transportation systems in the country.

While Southern Pacific's properties were being expanded under the guidance of Huntington, the Union Pacific system which joined SP at Ogden had developed to a strong position under the direction of E. H. Harriman. Purchase of the old Central Pacific line westward from Ogden to San Francisco had been sought by Harriman, but Southern Pacific would not sell. The only recourse for Harriman was through acquiring control of the entire Southern Pacific system, and in Huntington's death he gained the opportunity.

Through a series of skillful financial negotiations, Harriman had by March, 1901, caused the Union Pacific, through one of its subsidiaries, to acquire from the Huntington estate and others about 37 1/2 per cent of Southern Pacific's outstanding stock, which was sufficient for control of the company. Later this interest was increased to 46 per cent of the stock. Harriman was elected chairman of the SP executive committee in April, 1901, and became president on September 26 the same year, a position in which Charles M. Hays had served for nine months.

No one was more aware than Huntington had been of the fact that the vast skeleton system created by the Big Four required extensive rehabilitation to bring it to a proper standard of transportation efficiency. Numerous projects conceived by him were advanced beyond the preliminary blueprint stage by his engineers, under Chief Engineer William Hood. Property rights were obtained in many instances and some construction was started. However, SP was not in a financial position to launch the full-scale program until Harriman's reorganization made finances available.

More than $240,000,000 was spent during the eight years of Harriman's administration (he died September 9, 1909) on reconstruction and new equipment, and for the building or purchase of new lines. Only a few of the major - projects can be reviewed in this sketch.

One of the most difficult and spectacular pieces of construction was the now famous Lucin cut-off across Great Salt Lake, where for 32 miles the railroad "goes to sea" over a trestle and fill, nearly 12 miles of which is supported on piles. The entire cut-off project extended for 103 miles between Lucin and Ogden, and was in turn part of a program calling for extensive rehabilitation of 373 miles of the original Central Pacific line between Reno and Ogden, with the old line shortened and strengthened and completely replaced over many sections. One line change took Wads-worth off the main line and the division terminal was moved during the summer of 1904 to the new town of Sparks.

Construction on Lucin cut-off began March 17, 1902, and on November 13, 1903, tracks from the east and west shores met near the center of the lake. Although maximum depth of the lake was only 32 feet, the undertaking proved a tremendous one. The bottom of the lake was treacherous and unstable, and there were times when it seemed the fills and trestles would be swallowed in the mud. Completion of the job was formally celebrated on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1903, but the line was not opened to traffic until March 8, 1904. The new route relegated to a branch line the historic pioneer line around the north end of the lake through Promontory, where the memorable Last Spike was driven.

Probably the most expensive construction per-mile was the approximate ten miles of the Bayshore cut-off between San Francisco and San Bruno which was completed at a cost of nearly a million dollars a mile to replace the old main line built in 1863 through the hills south of San Francisco. Land acquisitions and other preliminaries on the project began during the few years prior to 1900. Actual construction started in October, 1904, involved extensive grading along the shore of the bay, building of bridges, and boring of five tunnels totaling nearly 10,000 feet. The line was opened December 8, 1907.

Another link in the Coast Line route of today's famed "Daylight" streamliners between San Francisco and Los Angeles, was opened March 31, 1901, when first trains operated between the two cities, making use of the Santa Paula branch between Santa Barbara and Saugus to bring trains into Los Angeles over the San Joaquin Valley line. Heavy construction had been encountered in the 150-mile section of the line north of Santa Barbara. Six tunnels in the Santa Lucia mountains and a spectacular horseshoe curve were required before the line was opened into San Luis Obispo on May 5, 1894. Then came miles of construction along the Pacific shore, providing a beautiful scenic route but offering many engineering difficulties in completing the line into Santa Barbara. Three years passed before the Santa Susana mountains south of Santa Barbara were pierced by three tunnels, one at Chatsworth being nearly a mile and a half long. Final link in the Coast Line was completed March 20, 1904, when traffic was routed south from Santa Barbara through Oxnard and Burbank into Los Angeles.

A stirring chapter in Southern Pacific history was enacted in the Imperial Valley during 1905-06-07 when the railroad's engineers and resources were matched against the unruly Colorado River which broke its banks and threatened to inundate much of the area that was to become one of the prolific garden spots of the world. Colonization and development had little more than gotten a start in the Valley at that time. The SP line, branching from the main Sunset Route at Niland (then Old Reach), had been completed during 1903-04 to the Mexican border at Calexico. Then came flood waters early in 1905. When attempts of the California Development Company failed to close the break. Southern Pacific was appealed to for finances and assistance. A tough battle was fought week after week, and on November 6, 1906, the river was turned back into its channel. But it was not securely harnessed. The Gila River sent flood waters into the Colorado and another break resulted on December 6, 1906. pouring the river into Salton Sea. SP's forces again went into action, this time at the personal urging of President Theodore Roosevelt. It was a case of dumping rock into the 1,100-foot break faster than the rampaging river could sweep it away. From two trestles built across the chasm in the river bank, rock was handled faster than it ever had been handled before.

Normal operations over 1,200 miles of the railroad's main line were disrupted while some 3000 flat cars of rock were rushed from distances as far as 480 miles. About 80,000 cubic yards were dumped in fifteen days. The break was sealed on February 11,1907. The Imperial Valley rail connection (Inter-California Railway Company) through Mexico, connecting SP's main line near Yuma, was completed July 24, 1911.

While in the midst of the battle with the Colorado River, Southern Pacific's aid was rushed to another disaster area. San Francisco's great earthquake struck early the morning of April 18, 1906, followed by three days of raging fires. Relief supplies of food, medicines and other articles were immediately collected in numerous towns and cities on the SP system and moved rapidly and continuously toward San Francisco. All movement of supplies and evacuees was done without charge. Freight trains were shortened so as to move on passenger train schedules. On April 19, 1,073 carloads of refugees were transported. All the company's shed facilities were offered to the homeless. Explosives, stores of gasoline, etc., were issued free to city authorities. Temporary tracks were laid on city streets for removal of debris and to bring in rebuilding materials. Over 250 persons were given free care at the company's hospital. Shortly before the hospital was destroyed by fire, all patients were safely removed to nearby cities. The company's general office and most records were destroyed. Southern Pacific gave $200,000 for relief work and in 35 days moved over 1,600 carloads of relief supplies and over 224,000 passengers free of charge.

One of the most ambitious projects undertaken during the Harriman administration was the extension of the Southern Pacific lines on the west coast of Mexico south of Guaymas. Construction was started south from Empalme, junction near Guaymas, in August, 1905, also north from both Mazatlan and Orendain Jct. in 1907. In June, 1909, the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of Mexico was incorporated to carry on the work, and on February 5, 1912, through service was begun over the new 669-mile line between Empalme and Tepic. The revolutionary period, 1910-1920, halted further construction and made operation of the completed road extremely difficult. In those nine years the 105-mile section north of Tepic could be operated only five months. There remained a gap of 102 miles from Tepic to La Quemada to be built before trains could be operated to Mexico City from Nogales over the West Coast route.

During the ten year period 1900-10, a total of 1,870 miles of railroad were added to the Southern Pacific system. In addition to the new lines and acquisitions already mentioned, numerous short fines were completed or under construction on the Atlantic System east of El Paso, as well as throughout the western states. Only a few of these extensions can be briefly mentioned here.

Southern Pacific joined John D. and A. B. Spreckels in building a line from San Diego to connect with SP's transcontinental route at El Centre, work on which was begun in 1907. The Pacific Fruit Express Company was incorporated Dec. 7,1906, owned jointly by SP-UP, to operate refrigerator cars. In the opening on October 22, 1910, of the rehabilitated and extended Nevada & California Railway (originating with the narrow gauge line opened in August, 1883, from Keeler, Calif., to Mound House, Nev., by the Carson & Colorado Railroad Co., incorporated. May 10, 1880) there were prospects that the through line of about 400 miles between Hazen, Nevada, on the Overland Route, and Mojave, Calif., on the San Joaquin Valley line, might eventually become a short-cut to the East for traffic out of Southern California.

The Arizona Eastern Railroad Company, formed on February 13, 1904, eventually consolidated into its organization the Arizona lines that served Phoenix and Globe-Miami, the first unit of which was the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad Co. operated between those two cities July 4, 1887; and another important unit was the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern, whose line from Bowie to Fort Thomas was opened May 1, 1895, reaching Globe on December 1, 1898, and Miami late in 1909.

Through consolidation of seven short lines operating steam and electric serv-ice in the north coast counties of California, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Company was formed January 8, 1907, under joint ownership of the SP and Santa Fe, to complete construction and weld the various units into one property extending from Sausalito and Tiburon on San Francisco Bay through San Rafael, Santa Rosa and Ukiah to Eureka and Trinidad, together with ferry boat service to San Francisco. Final 106-mile link through Eel River canyon between Willits and Shively was completed with a "last spike" ceremony October 23, 1914, but it was July 1, 1915, before the through line was opened to traffic. Pioneer unit of the NWP dates from Charles Minturn's 2 1/2-mile horse-powered rail line of 1864 from Petaluma to Haystack Landing where it connected with ferry boats to San Francisco. Among other early companies was Peter Donahue's 1870 rail-ferry service from Santa Rosa to Donahue Landing and San Francisco. (January 17, 1929, SP acquired full ownership of the 515-mile NWP railroad and its ferry boats.)

Southern Pacific became interested in a number of steam and electric line projects in Oregon. Most important of these properties were the 141-mile Corvallis & Eastern line from the coast port of Yaquina across the state through Corvallis and Albany to Idanha, built during 1885-89, and acquired by SP in 1907; the Coos Bay, Roseburg and Eastern, whose short line from Myrtle Point into Marshfield was extended 122 miles to Eugene by the Willamette Pacific and opened to traffic October 1, 1916; the Portland, Eugene & Eastern, incorporated in 1907 to build and acquire lines in the WilIamette Valley which were later electrified; and the Pacific Railway & Navigation Company which started building between Hillsboro and Tillamook in 1905-06,but was not opened for through traffic until Jan. 1, 1912.

On the Atlantic System during the 1900-10 period, 160 miles of the Dallas-Sabine branch in Texas were constructed between Rockland and Gossett to provide a through line between Beaumont and Dallas. Other companies were formed to acquire existing properties and to build extensions, a large portion of which work was delayed pending outcome of suits instituted by the government to separate the Southern Pacific-Union Pacific System.

The Sherman Anti-Trust law of 1890 was the basis of two suits, the government contending that Union Pacific's control of Southern Pacific through stock ownership was in violation of the law, and also that Southern Pacific's control of' Central Pacific was illegal.

The first suit involving the Union Pacific-Southern Pacific was begun February 1, 1908, and in reversing a lower court's decision, the U. S. Supreme Court on December 2, 1912, held that the ownership of 46% of the outstanding stock of the SP by the Union Pacific was in contravention of the Sherman Act. Arrangements for disposal of the stock and divorce of UP from control of the SP was approved by the court June 30, 1913.

The government's suit to force SP to sell all its stock in the pioneer Central Pacific was begun February 11, 1914. The U. S. District Court decided in favor of the railroad on March 9, 1917, but, on the government's appeal, that decision was reversed and decision rendered against the SP on May 29, 1922. Meantime, Congress had passed the Transportation Act of 1920 which conferred power upon the Interstate Commerce Commission to authorize any carrier to acquire control of another carrier by lease or stock ownership, such control being relieved from operation of the Sherman Act. SP applied to the ICC in October, 1922, and after an extended hearing, the Commission on February 6, 1923, approved SP's control of the Central Pacific as being "in the public interest." The court recognized the ICC decision, and in August, 1923, the suit was ended.

America's entry into the first World War (April 6, 1917) found Southern Pacific's management immediately alert to the gigantic transportation task it would be called on to perform with other railroads. Less than a week after war was declared the nation's railroad executives had organized the Railroads' War Board to coordinate operations of the country's rail facilities. William Sproule, who had been president of SP since Sept. 25, 1911, became chairman of the Western Department of the Board, which took over functions of the National Car Service Commission, organized by the American Railway Association on December 5, 1916, to unify and regulate flow of freight cars. However, in spite-of all the railroads' efforts, the system of war priorities for government freight jammed loaded freight cars into many areas throughout the country, particularly at Atlantic ports, where hundreds of thousands of cars could not be unloaded because of a shortage of ships and a lack of port warehouses or storage space. Hundreds of carloads of freight were also tied up at construction projects where work was not advanced sufficiently to make use of the materials. Congestions and car shortages were the inevitable result, not because the railroad plants were inadequate if put to their proper use, but because their equipment and trackage were used for storage instead of transportation purposes.

Government control and operation of the nation's railroads became effective at noon on December 28, 1917. There were no changes in Southern Pacific's officer personnel or subdivision of territory until July 1, 1918, when President Sproule was named by the U. S. Railroad Administration as district director of the lines of all railroads west of Ogden, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque and El Paso, and south of Ashland, Ore., in what was called the Central Western Region. This segregation placed SP's Oregon lines in the Northwestern Region, and its Texas and Louisiana lines in the Southwestern Region. Julius Kruttschnitt, chairman of SP's executive committee, was elected to the additional duties of corporate president to succeed Sproule. W. R. Scott, then vice president and general manager of SP's Pacific Lines, became federal manager over the remainder of the Pacific Lines as well as of the Western Pacific properties in the Central Western Region.

Over SP lines and elsewhere throughout the country, railroad facilities were consolidated, in some respects, for unified operations. As examples, SP and Western Pacific trains made joint use of each other's tracks through a portion of Nevada, and Oakland Pier terminal was used jointly by the SP, WP and Santa Fe. Ticket offices were consolidated in many cities and off-line traffic offices were closed. The war ended less than eleven months after the government took over the railroads, but the properties were not returned to private operation until 12:01 a.m., March 1, 1920, making a total of approximately 26 months under federal control. Sproule resumed his pre-war SP position, and Scott became president of the lines in Texas and Louisiana.

Out of wartime operations the railroads, the government and the nation's shippers gained valuable experiences. The need of organizational set-ups to work out a program for efficient, smooth functioning of railroad services was obvious. The American Railway Association, founded in October, 1891 (predecessor of today's Association of American Railroads, organized in September, 1934), coordinated many phases of operations and practices, particularly in the handling of freight cars through the association's Car Service Division to avoid car shortages and congestion during heavy traffic situations. The government, through its military, naval and other agencies; and the shippers, through thirteen Regional Shippers Advisory Boards, perfected rail transportation procedures in a highly coordinated degree of teamwork with the railroads that was to pay off handsomely some twenty years later when rumblings of another war emergency gripped the nation.

When Southern Pacific regained control of its properties in March, 1920, it faced, in common with all other rail-,road companies, abnormal operating conditions. There were many problems to be solved, the most acute being a shortage of serviceable cars and locomotives. Little new equipment had been built because of war restrictions on labor and materials. Every car and locomotive that could roll had been subjected to heavy and continuous service and much shop work was necessary. There was an unusual dislocation of equipment with heavy concentrations of cars in the eastern territory.

To get the greatest service possible out of existing equipment and facilities, Southern Pacific intensified the wartime campaign for heavier loading and prompt unloading of freight cars, getting fine results through cooperation of shippers. Repair work in shops was moved into high gear, and orders were placed for many millions of dollars worth of new equipment. This move for early strengthening of SP's capacity was coupled with a vast long-range program of rehabilitation and development.

In most of its major aspects this program was a continuation of the construction that had been started, or projected, in the 1900's before the government suits under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and then the war, brought the railroad's expansion to a virtual standstill. The program was launched under direction of Kruttschnitt, who had intimate knowledge of many of the projects from their very inception, having been director of maintenance and operations for the combined SP-UP system from April, 1904, and then chairman of SP's executive committee after succeeding R. S. Lovett on January 13, 1913. The $387,000,000 gross expenditures for road extensions, additions and betterments, made during the eight years before the depression era swept the nation, surpassed any similar period in the company's history.

Keynote of the entire rehabilitation program was sounded in the placing of a single order for fifty heavy duty 2-10-2 type locomotives, twenty of which rolled across the continent' from Baldwin's plant near Philadelphia in a solid train aptly called the "Prosperity Special." The sensational train, acclaimed by the press as heralding a national upswing in business and industrial activities, reached Los Angeles on June 10, 1922. In the five year period of 1920-24, more than $105,000,000 was spent for locomotives, freight and passenger cars, and other equipment, some of which were built in the company's shops.

During 1923 and the seven years immediately following. Southern Pacific had more new construction in hand than any other railroad in the country. Four major projects completed at an aggregate cost of $76,000,000 were: Cascade Line (Natron cut-off), through Klamath Falls, Ore., $39,000,000, including expenditures for the beginnings of this project dating from 1905; new line Klamath Falls to Alturas, Cal., and rebuilding of the Nevada-CaIifornia-Oregon line to standard gauge, $9,000,000; new line in Arizona through Phoenix, $14,000,000; and completion of the Mexico line, $14,000,000.

The 270-mile Cascade Line between Black Butte, Cal., and Natron, Ore., opened to freight and local passenger traffic on September 1, -1926, and to all through traffic on April 17, 1927, provided a route with lighter grade, less curvature, and 25 miles shorter than the original line built over the Siskiyou mountains during the late '80s. This project had its beginning when the Oregon Eastern was organized by SP in August, 1905, to build east from near Eugene across the Cascades. The intention was to connect with the Union Pacific but the litigation that separated the SP-UP properties caused a change in the routing as well as delayed construction. Work was begun at Natron, near Eugene, in August, 1909, and the line, commonly referred to as the Natron cut-off, was opened to Oakridge in May, 1912.

The California portion of the Cascade Line originated in the California Northeastern, incorporated in July, 1905, to reconstruct a logging road built by the Weed Lumber Co. during 1903-05 from Weed to Grass Lake, and to extend the line to Klamath Falls. The road was opened for traffic to Klamath Falls in May, 1909, and to Kirk, Ore., in September, 1912. Work stopped there until construction was resumed in September, 1923, to complete the 108-mile gap between Kirk and Oakridge. Also involved in the finally completed Cascade Line was a 24-mile line change around the base of Mt. Shasta between Black Butte and Grass Lake, Cal., replacing the original section of line northward out of Weed.

The 278-mile Modoc Line, opened for traffic on September 15, 1929, was created by building from Klamath Falls 96 miles to Alturas and rehabilitating the N-C-O- narrow gauge from Alturas to' a connection with SP's Overland Route in Nevada. This new transcontinental link brought Oregon and certain northern California regions about 200 miles closer to markets of the East.

The new line through Phoenix, opened to traffic on November 14, 1926, and joined with the 1139 miles of the El Paso & Southwestern system which had been consolidated with SP on November 1, 1924, gave SP a second main line across Arizona and New Mexico as far as El Paso. The EP&SW properties extended from Tucson through Douglas and El Paso to Tucumcari, N. M., with important branch lines in the two states. Phelps, Dodge & Company, extensive mining and smelting operators, developed the line dating from the Arizona and Southeastern opened in May, 1888, to haul ore and other traffic from Copper Queen mine at Bisbee to a connection with the Sonora Railway extension at Fairbank. Subsequent construction carried the EP&SW main line into the newly-founded city of Douglas in 1901, to El Paso on June 30, 1903, and to Tucson on November 25, 1912. The extension from El Paso to Tucumcari was part of a line completed in February, 1902, to connect with the Rock Island at Santa Rosa, and the Tucumcari-Dawson. line was completed January 31, 1903.

Some of the heaviest railroad construction ever undertaken was involved in completing the final 102 miles of SP's line in Mexico. Volcanic formations of the rugged Barrancas were particularly tough. Thirty-two tunnels were bored, and on one section of the work more than 4000 Mexican laborers were employed. As part of this through line, 23 miles between Orendain Jct. and Guadalajara are leased from National Railways of Mexico. On April 17, 1927, first trains were operated over the 1,095-mile through line from Nogales to Guadalajara, where connection was made for Mexico City.

In addition to the construction of these important main line units, the expansive improvement program of 1923-30 included a multitude of other projects, only a few of the larger items of which can be mentioned here.

Double-tracking and strengthening the capacity of the Overland Route, particularly over the Sierra Nevada mountains, was one of the major jobs resumed in 1923. The project was begun in 1906 and nearly 200 miles of second track had been completed at various points between Sacramento and Ogden by the time work was suspended in 1914. Biggest single project in connection with the Sierra double-tracking was construction of the Summit tunnel of 10,326 feet, longest on SP lines, which was completed during 1925. To further expand double track operations on the Overland Route, an agreement was made with the Western Pacific on August 1, 1924, for joint use of that company's 178-mile line between Alazon and Weso in Nevada. Double-tracking was completed at other points over the system, particularly on sections of the Tehachapi mountain line during 1922-23 and 1928-29, and on sections of the Coast Line between San Jose and Watsonville Jct. during 1927-30.

Several of the larger freight classification yards were expanded. First units of the new Taylor Yard at Los Angeles, which was to eventually total 250 miles of trackage, were completed during 1922-23. Other facilities, including subways and an office building, were added in 1926, and an engine terminal was completed at Taylor Yard during 1929-31. At Fresno a new freight classification yard, PFE icing station, and 15-mile freight line between Kerman and Biola Jct., were major units of a big project completed in 1929-30. During 1925-26-27 considerable trackage and other facilities were added to the Roseville terminal, where PFE completed its car repair shops and storage track extensions in 1927. An extensive freight yard terminal was constructed at Santa Clara, Cal., during 1926, with additional facilities completed 1928-29. Construction on a large terminal yard at Eugene, Ore., was begun in 1923 and the last unit completed during 1929.

At Yuma a single span 400-foot steel bridge was constructed across the Colorado river during 1923, about 1300 feet upstream from the former crossing. Involved in this change of line was a new terminal yard and 11 miles of double track extending five miles east of Yuma to the East Yard and six miles west to junction of the Inter-Califomia at Araz Jct. These terminal changes were progressively constructed and completed during 1928. Outstanding among new passenger stations completed in the 1923-30 period, were: Glendale, Ogden Union station, and Phoenix Union station in 1924; Sacramento, Reno and Yuma, in 1926; and Stockton in 1930. A new freight station was completed at Bakersfield in 1927. The 16-mile narrow gauge line of the Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Co., originally opened between Truckee and Lake Tahoe in May, 1899, was leased October 16, 1925, rebuilt to standard gauge and opened for traffic May 1, 1926. (This line was abandoned in 1943.)

The Oregon, California & Eastern Ry., from Klamath Falls to the Sprague River in southern Oregon, was purchased July 22, 1927, and a half interest subsequently sold to the Great Northern. An extension to Bly was completed on April 30, 1929, giving the road a total of 65 miles.

Construction was begun in May, 1929, on the $10,900,000 5,603-foot double-track Martinez-Benicia bridge across Suisun Bay, 35 miles from San Francisco, the longest and heaviest railroad bridge west of the Mississippi. First trains were operated across the span on October 15, 1930. Its completion made possible the abandonment of the world's two largest car-transfer ferry steamers, the "Solano" and "Contra Costa," which for many years had carried freight cars and entire passenger trains across Carquinez Straits between Port Costa and Benicia.

To the properties in Texas and Louisiana, the 40-mile line of the Franklin and Abbeville Ry. Co., serving a Louisiana sugar refinery and plantation, was added in November, 1924. Control of the Dayton-Goose Creek Ry. Co., a 25-mile line from Baytown, Texas, to connection with the T&NO at Dayton, Texas, was acquired through stock ownership on May 1, 1926; and in the same manner control of the 125-mile Texas Midland Railroad from Ennis to Paris, Texas, was acquired on April 1, 1928. An important piece of construction in Texas, principally to overcome serious wash-outs, was the replacing of the old line of nearly 14 miles between Langtry and Osman, with a new line less than ten miles in length.

The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Ry. Co. was re-acquired on April 8, 1925, and operated in consolidation with SP's Texas lines. SP had control of the capital stock and guaranteed the principal and interest on the first mortgage bonds of this company up to 1903, when a court decree required SP to relinquish its control. The SA&AP's 725 miles of Texas lines extended from Waco on the north, Kerrville on the west, and Houston on the east, to Falfurrias and Corpus Christi on the south. During 1926-27 this property was extended approximately 135 miles into the Rio Grande Valley, the new line from Falfurrias through Edinburg to McAllen being placed in complete service in February, 1927, also 15 miles of the line east of Edinburg opened to freight traffic. Remaining portion of the line, Edinburg through Harlingen to Brownsville, was opened to freight service on October 20,1927, and to passenger service the following November 10.

Important subsidiary and affiliated companies operating on Pacific Lines before the end of 1929 to carry on specialized phases of the railroad's varied transportation services, were: Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries, Ltd., in May, 1929, handling ferry boat vehicular traffic between several points on San Francisco Bay; the Southern Pacific Motor Transport Company, in April, 1927, operating motor passenger coaches on highway routes; and the Pacific Electric Motor Transport Co., in Mar. 1929, experimenting with motor trucks operating in conjunction with freight trains in the delivery of less than carload freight from store-door of the shipper to store-door of the receiver.

Chief executives who supervised SP's affairs in the period before the dark days of the depression struck in 1930, other than the already mentioned Kruttschnitt and Sproule, were: Henry W. de Forest, who succeeded Kruttschnitt as chairman of the executive committee on June 1,1925; Hale Holden, who succeeded de Forest on January 1, 1929; Paul Shoup, who succeeded Sproule as president on January 1,1929; and A. D. McDonald, who had become vice chairman of the executive committee on June 1,1925, assuming the added duties of president of the Southern Pacific lines in Texas and Louisiana (formerly referred to as the "Atlantic system lines") in 1926 and supervision of the S. P. Steamship Lines in January, 1929.

The "depression" years that began with 1930 were lean ones for Southern Pacific, in common with industry in general. Total railway operating revenues for 1928 and 1929 had reached all-time highs in the company's history. In 1930 they dropped to the lowest point in ten years. Volume of freight traffic handled on SP's transportation system (Pacific Lines, Texas and Louisiana Lines, Steamship Lines) dropped to its lowest figure of the depression period during 1932 when revenue ton-miles were 50 per cent under the peak of 1929. The low year for passenger traffic (exclusive of electric lines travel) was 1933 when revenue passenger-miles were 63 per cent under the company's previous all-time peak year of 1920.

Retrenchments in the company's operations were necessary all along the line. More economical and efficient ways were found to handle the business. Expenditures were" confined to those necessary for current operating purposes and safety. Five operating divisions were consolidated with other divisions. New Mexico was added to the Rio Grande, July 27, 1930; Western took over the East Bay Electric on October 16, 1930, also the Stockton Division on May 1,1931; and Shasta Division was linked to Sacramento Division on September 15,1932. (Shasta was restored as a separate division July 1,1941, when wartime traffic became exceptionally heavy.) During 1931-32 various accounting activities of most operating divisions were consolidated in bureaus at San Francisco, others at major freight stations. Some branch lines were abandoned and torn up; unprofitable services were sloughed off; obsolete equipment was junked. Payment of dividends to stockholders was discontinued, after the last quarterly payment for 1931, the first dividend missed since payments were begun in 1906. Total number of employes on the entire transportation system dropped to a low of 41,863 in March, 1933, as compared with a total monthly average of 89,304 in 1929.

A new executive set-up became effective August 1, 1932, to simplify and adjust the official management more closely to current conditions. A new position of chairman. Southern Pacific Company, was created to place control and direction of the company's affairs in a single authority. Holden became chairman, and Shoup, vice chairman, at New York; McDonald was elected president, to have jurisdiction over all rail and steamship lines, and other properties of the company, with offices at San Francisco and Houston. After meeting the depression emergency with the unpleasant task of effecting rigid economies, SP's management turned to the more stimulating and pleasant role of adopting new services and techniques that would attract business and meet competition, particularly competition on the highways. Traffic revenues were low, but a progressive and competitive spirit ran high.

It was then that a new era in railroading was born—an era that brought air-conditioning, the greatest boon to travel since railroading began. SP pioneered and led the way in numerous innovations and improvements in railroad services; notably, in expanding motor truck store-door pickup and delivery of less than carload freight to include highway operations in conjunction with fast overnight merchandise freight trains, also in the offering of "bargain-day" passenger fares on coach trains, and in the introduction of the popular priced "meals select" in dining cars. SP also joined in the inauguration of streamlined, lightweight, luxuriously comfortable passenger trains; in the instituting of coach-tourist car trains for economy travel; and in placing stewardess-nurses on certain transcontinental trains. These highly modernized services will be described further on.

When the depression hit, SP had numerous construction projects and property acquisitions underway. Most were completed without delay, such as the Martinez-Benicia bridge already mentioned, while a few were deferred. One of the biggest was a line change of nearly six miles in San Jose, which involved construction of eight grade separations, considerable trackage and facilities, and the erection of a new passenger station. The first subway was completed in September, 1931, but it was December 31, 1935, before the entire $3,250,000 project was opened to traffic. In Los Angeles an important improvement completed on June 1, 1931, was a new double-track line on the east side of the Los Angeles river over which freight trains could be routed around the business district of the city. A new freight station was opened at Reno during the same year.

As a major unit in the railroad's extensive water supply system for operational and domestic use on the lines between El Paso and Tucumcari, N. M., Bonito Dam was placed in service during the summer of 1931. Built across the river of the same name in the White mountains about 26 miles southeast of Carrizozo, N. M., the dam rises 92 feet above the river bed, is 440 feet long at the top, and impounds a reservoir of 384,000,000 gal. capacity.

The first installation on SP lines of Centralized Traffic-Control (method of operation to be described later) was placed in service during April, 1930, over a 39.7-mile section in California between points near Stockton and Sacramento. The project of installing automatic block signals on all of the company's primary main lines, which work had been continued progressively for a number of years, was completed during 1931, to give SP more road-miles of railroad protected by this safety device than any other railroad in the country.

Most important acquisition to SP lines since the welding of the El Paso & Southwestern into the Pacific Lines in 1924, was the 1800-mile St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt), capital stock control of which was concluded on April 14, 1932. Application to the Interstate Commerce Commission for authority to acquire control of the property through purchase of a majority of the company's outstanding capital stock, was made on July 25, 1930. With St. Louis as the northern terminus, lines of the Cotton Belt are operated in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, making various connections with SP's lines in Texas and Louisiana, particularly at Dallas, Corsicana and Shreveport. The property has remained in operation under its own, or trustee, management.

Another acquisition during 1932 was that of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad Co. with 37 "miles of electric lines serving an intensively developed agricultural section of Sonoma County, Cal. Control of the rail properties, two small freight steamers and a line of barges operating between Petaluma and San Francisco, was acquired by SP through the Northwestern Pacific.

The 200-mile San Diego and Arizona railroad, including main and branch lines, extending from San Diego through 44 miles of Mexico to connect with SP's transcontinental route at El Centre, Cal., was acquired for full ownership by the SP on February 1,1933, through purchase of the portion of capital stock held by the Spreckels interests. The name was changed to San Diego & Arizona Eastern Ry. Co. Construction of this line, involving difficult and costly engineering work extending over twelve years, was still underway when the first World War broke. In order that work could continue, the road was released from federal control, the only company in the country to receive such permission. The line was opened to traffic on December 1, 1919.