from the HANDBOOK OF TEXAS ONLINE
In 1815, Revolutionary War veteran Col. John Stevens hurried to catch up with developments in England and applied for the first railroad charter in the United States. The state of New Jersey granted him a charter to build a railroad across the state. Pennsylvania followed in 1823.
The first successful locomotives ran in Great Britain in 1812 and 1815, and the first rail line, the Stockton & Darlington, steamed over the tracks in 1825. In the United States, Stevens built a small locomotive operated by a cog wheel and rack rail on a circular track in his yard to prove to skeptics that the idea would work.1
He never lived to see his own railroad operating.
Maryland chartered the first large railroad of any importance in 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio. America’s “railroad fever” began spreading across the country over the next decades. Freight could now be shipped cheaper than over turnpike levies and faster than by way of canals. At the end of 1836 there were 1273 miles of track in the United States. By the time of the financial panic of 1837, which closed some weak lines, over 200 railroad projects forged ahead. The fever swept over the Midwestern states and Illinois with a population of 380,000 in 1837 authorized 1300 miles of railroad track.2
Bitter opposition often followed the railroad. Assisted by tavern keepers, turnpike stockholders, and canal operators, teamsters often turned violent in attempting to stop the railroads. Legislative influence also tried to impose provisions making the carrying of freight illegal, but the railroads thundered on.
Despite the problems, railroads laid over 3,000 miles of track by 1840 and 9,000 by 1850. “Mankind was on the move, impelled unconsciously by the Industrial revolution and political events both near and far away.”3 Large immigrations from Europe combined with the gold strike in California and the need for more land made railroads a major factor in a race for the west.
Texas caught the fever and awarded a charter for the first railroad in 1836 to the Texas Railroad Navigation and Banking Co. Because of the financial panic of 1837, stock was never sold. The first railroad was actually built in 1853 to move freight only and was rechartered as the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway.
Parlor cars made their debut in 1840. The idea of carrying passengers came as an afterthought to the invention of railroads. The first passenger cars resembled stagecoaches on different wheels.
By the beginning of the Civil War, the north had a two to one predominance of rail lines compared to the south. Texas had eleven separate railroads built prior to the Civil War, mostly in East Texas. By 1860, Texas completed 460.91 miles of track with Southern Pacific completing 333.5 miles of that. Railroad centers became population centers.4
During the Civil War the use of railroads to move men, equipment and supplies became of strategic importance. This made railroads a prime target. The railroads in Texas decayed during the 1860-1870 decade, but only one had been completely destroyed. The Texas and New Orleans track was ripped up and used in the building of Fort Sabine.
On 1 July 1862, with southerners out of the way, congress passed and President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act. This provided for two companies to build the great project. The Union Pacific would lay track westward from Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific would start eastward from Sacramento, California. The original meeting point of the California-Nevada border changed to Promontory, Utah as the railroads neared completion. Starting construction in early 1863, east finally met west at Promontory on 10 May 1869.
Following the Civil War, thousands of immigrants from war ravaged areas flooded into Texas. From 1860 to 1870, Houston and Texas Central Railway was the only Texas railroad that did any building. By 1868, it had rebuilt its damaged and broken down tracks and lines. By 1870, Texas boasted 511 miles of railroad.5
During the next two decades railroad building in Texas reached climactic proportions. From 511 miles of track in 1870 to 8,710 miles in 1890, Texas’ economy and population also boomed. Railroads became a matter of life or death to towns. Towns disappeared when railroads bypassed them. Towns emerged when railroads stopped there. Towns already existing doubled, tripled or even increased 1000% as a result of the arrival of the railroad.6
The first decade of the twentieth century saw Texas return to prosperity following the panic of 1893 and the subsequent depression. A new industry spurted up, oil, and railroad building again boomed with over 5,000 new miles constructed. By 1910 Texas had 12,901 miles of track and a population of 3,896,542. From 1910-1920 an additional 3,000 miles were added and the population increased by another 3-4 million due to the oil industry and the burgeoning citrus business. After 1920 construction came to a standstill.7
Promontory marked the true beginning of the settlement of the Great West. Due to the great railroad builders, within 50 years by 1912, the last of the 48 continental states had been admitted to the Union and the 12,000 miles of railroad in the trans-Mississippi area in 1870 multiplied tenfold.8
Notes:
1. Jensen, Oliver. The American Heritage History of Railroads in America. (New York: American Heritage
Publishing Co., Inc., 1975), 20.
2. Ibid, 32.
3. Ibid, 34.
4. Reed, S. G. A History of the Texas Railroads. (Houston: St. Clair Publishing Co. 1941), 15.
5. Ibid, 29.
6. Ibid, 53.
7. Ibid, 69.
8. Jensen, 104