America's Second Transcontinental Railroad

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Now, some stories start quiet and build slow. This one starts with a idea floatin' around the United States Congress back in 1845, and it doesn't stop movin' for the better part of forty years.

Statesmen like Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun were already making the case: America needed a transcontinental railroad. That vision took a while, but it got done.

In 1869, the first transcontinental line was effected. A great achievement. But the moment the ink dried, folks in Congress were already saying; we need a southern route too.

And that's where things get interesting. In 1869, the Southern Pacific began constructing a line eastward from the west coast. In 1871, the Texas and Pacific began building westward out of east Texas, headed for southern California, under a special Act of Congress.

Two railroads. Two directions. One destination.

And neither one inclined to wait on the other. What followed was a race. A dramatic race, and that word dramatic isn't mine, that's the marker's own word, so you know it earned it.

Crews pushed iron across desert and mountain and nothing, construction gangs grinding toward each other across west Texas and the southwest like two arguments headed for the same doorway. Now picture it: the Southern Pacific is coming from the west. The Texas and Pacific is coming from the east.

And they are converging right here, in Hudspeth County, Texas, out where the land is wide and the sky doesn't apologize for anything. Southern Pacific reached Sierra Blanca on November 25, 1881. The Texas and Pacific crews?

They were still ten miles to the east of this very site. Ten miles. After hundreds upon hundreds of miles of track, ten miles was all that separated them.

The next day, November 26, 1881, two men sat down and made a deal. Jay Gould, representing the Texas and Pacific. Collis P.

Huntington, representing the Southern Pacific. And what they agreed to, right there in Sierra Blanca, was that the two roads would (and I'm usin' their exact words now) approach, meet, and form one continuous line to the Pacific Ocean. Then came December 15, 1881.

The lines were joined here. Right here. And on December 16, transcontinental service was inaugurated.

From Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun talkin' it up in Congress in 1845, to two crews racin' across the American West, to the moment the rails finally touched, America had itself a second transcontinental railroad. And the place where it all came together wasn't some grand city or famous depot.

It was right here, out in west Texas, where the ground is hard and the history runs deep.

What the marker says

(Joined Here in 1881) Great achievement in American history. Victory for statesmen, including Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, who early as 1845 had supported in the United States Congress the idea of a transcontinental railroad. This was effected in 1869, but a need remained-- as advocated in the Congress-- for a southern route. In 1869 the Southern Pacific began constructing such a line eastward from the west coast. In 1871 the Texas & Pacific began building a line, under a special Act of Congress, from east Texas to southern California. They ran a dramatic race which reached its climax as construction crews for the roads neared this site. Southern Pacific reached Sierra Blanca on Nov. 25, 1881-- while crews of the T. & P. were 10 miles to the east of here. On Nov. 26, 1881, an agreement was reached by Jay Gould, for the Texas & Pacific, and Collis P. Huntington, for the Southern Pacific, whereby in Sierra Blanca the roads would "approach, meet, and form one continuous line to the Pacific Ocean." The lines were joined here on Dec. 15,1881, and on Dec. 16 transcontinental service was inaugurated. (1968)