The Iron Horse
The problem of California's isolation from the rest of the nation was solved with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The person most responsible for launching that massive enterprise was a young civil engineer named Theodore Judah. Judah tirelessly pursued financial backers for the project and found them in four ambitious Sacramento merchants, known in the annals of California history as the Big Four. Judah also was instrumental in securing government aid for the construction of the railroad.
Building the railroad was a monumental undertaking. The greatest challenge was laying rails through the heart of the Sierra Nevada. After six years of toil, the railroad was completed with the Gold Spike ceremony at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. Most of the construction work on the western portion of the line was performed by Chinese labor.
The railroad's economic impact on the state was far-reaching, although not quite what was expected. California agriculture was among those industries that prospered with the opening of eastern markets. Perishable farm products now could swiftly be shipped across the country in refrigerated rail cars. The completion of rival rail lines contributed to the boom of the eighties, a rapid expansion of the population and economy of southern California.
The great wealth produced by the railroad enabled its owners to become some of California's leading philanthropic benefactors. The wife of the first president of the Central Pacific Railroad, for example, became the mother of a university. Such benefactions were not always appreciated by those who condemned the railroad as an octopus strangling California.