It should come as no surprise that railroads played a crucial part of the economic growth of the western United States, especially in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth. Railroads carried passengers, cargo, and mail, back and forth from midwestern departure points to the west coast. The most widely honored and recognized early achievement in this process was the linkup of the first east/west line at Promontory Summit, Utah, in May, 1869. But widely overlooked is the great economic development brought about by the Santa Fe Railroad beginning just a few years afterward.
The Pacific Railway Act: Prior to the passage of the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 Congress authorized the War Department to survey five potential routes through the western territories to determine the best one for a transcontinental railroad. In 1862, Congress passed “An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes”, otherwise known as the Pacific Railway Act. The act provided for land grants and money through bond issuance to develop a continuous transcontinental railroad. The Pacific Railway was created out of two formerly competing lines, however, it was not promoted with the idea of building up freight and passenger traffic. The route followed northern latitudes that were sometimes impassible owing to winter weather. There were few feeder lines initially, and the towns that sprang up along the way were notorious for saloons and bordellos.
The Santa Fe Railroad: In 1863, another railroad venture was founded that would eventually supersede the Pacific Railway—the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe. The Santa Fe Railroad was privately funded, and sought out the routes that would generate traffic to bolster the railroad business. The first general manager, William Barstow Strong, was very growth-oriented believing that if the company failed to advance, it would end up going backward and lose ground previously gained. One of his favorite tactics was to buy land and rights of way cheap, then after the rail line was built, sell off portions of the land for higher prices to support the railroad as it continued to grow.
Early Competition: In 1873, the Santa Fe Railroad extended from Kansas to Colorado, reaching the trading center of Pueblo. It was there that the line ran into some competition from the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad that was attempting to reach the Pacific via Mexico. Both railroads had the goal of expanding through the southwest to the Pacific Coast. They both clashed in a number of ways, but the rivalry became very serious when in 1879 it was discovered that silver could be mined in a former gold mining town recently named Leadville. Both railroads wanted to service that part of Colorado, and the rivalry became intense with legal battles and clashes between private armies. Finally, a compromise was reached, and Leadville went to the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. In exchange, Santa Fe was given the territorial rights to the south and west of Colorado. It turned out to be the better end of the bargain by far as the silver mining in Leadville played out only a couple of years later. As the Santa Fe continued to grow, the land surrounding the railroad also grew.
The Route to Los Angeles: The Santa Fe continued growing westward eventually reaching Los Angeles in 1887. A second link to the Pacific Ocean from the Midwest was created when Santa Fe also expanded eastward to Chicago. Once in Los Angeles, the Santa Fe Railroad realized it wasn’t the only game in town as another railroad also was there—the Southern Pacific, a survivor of the old Pacific Railway venture. The Southern Pacific line ran from Los Angeles to Chicago via its San Francisco hub through the line passing through Promontory Utah. The fierce competition between the two lines enticed many passengers to travel to Los Angeles, causing the city to grow to five times its size from 1880 to 1890. Other California towns such as Pasadena, Fullerton, Riverside, and San Bernardino also grew at astronomical rates. Southern California’s Mediterranean climate attracted many migrants from the East and particularly the Midwest. As Southern California grew, so did the Santa Fe Railroad.
The Chicago Hub also grew: Chicago also grew as a gathering point for shipping and passenger transport to Los Angeles. In 1872, Montgomery Ward began selling merchandise out of mail-order catalogs with the goods being shipped anywhere by train out of Chicago bypassing retail outlets. The business became popular in the growing West owing to the massive number of items that could be purchased via the catalog that could not be found in local retail stores. Chicago’s stockyards and lumber business furthered that city’s growth prospects into the next century.
The Chain Restaurant Business: The Harvey House chain of restaurants began with the Santa Fe Railroad’s merger with New York restauranteur Fred Harvey, whose innovative marketing created the nation’s first restaurant chain. Harvey House grew to be located approximately every 100 miles along Santa Fe’s routes. The chain included lunch rooms, restaurants, hotels, and souvenir shops, and served over one million meals from its inception in 1876 to the turn of the twentieth century.
Conclusion: From the latter half of the 19th Century through the first half of the 20th Century, the Santa Fe Railroad made east/west transportation, communications, and trade much easier, and paved the way for Los Angeles to become America’s second largest city by population after New York. But as the times changed, passenger traffic disappeared from most rail lines in the late 1960’s until it was taken over completely by Amtrak, the government supported passenger rail line, in 1971. Santa Fe continued to be a major carrier of freight, predominantly from west coast harbors to points east. The line merged with the Burlington Northern rail line in 1996, and the combined line was acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway organization in 2009.
Sources: How the Santa Fe Railroad Changed America Forever, John Sedgwick, Smithsonian Magazine, July/August 2021 (Courtesy of History.com).
Wikipedia.