The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad (SF&SJ) was a railroad which linked the communities of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
, running the length of the
San Francisco Peninsula
The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo A ...
. The company incorporated in 1860 and was one of the first railroads to employ Chinese laborers in its construction.
It opened the first portion of its route in 1863, completing the entire route in 1864. The company was consolidated with the
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
in 1870. Today,
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far ...
and the
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
continue to operate trains over the company's original route.
History
A railroad between San Francisco and San Jose was planned as early as 1849–50, leading to the creation of The Pacific and Atlantic Railroad Company (P&A) on September 6, 1851.
The route was surveyed and published by the end of 1851, but the P&A was unable to raise funds locally; when the P&A turned to banking houses in New York and England, they were told that no funds could be disbursed without first obtaining local capital.
The company reorganized on October 29, 1853, just before the expiration of the construction permit, and of stock was drawn up for sale, but an untimely downturn in the economy meant no investors were forthcoming.
Public sentiment again turned to the idea of constructing a railroad in 1857–58
and a new San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Company was incorporated in late 1859 with the idea to raise public funds by putting a referendum to the voters of the three counties served (San Francisco,
San Mateo, and
Santa Clara) asking them to purchase a total of in stock of the new company.
This was portrayed in the news as "an attempted fraud upon the tax-payers of the counties" and the company dissolved in June 1860.
A new SF&SJ incorporated on August 18, 1860
with San Francisco industrialist
Peter Donahue stepping in as treasurer, choosing his friends Judge Timothy Dame as president and
Henry Newhall
Henry Mayo Newhall (May 13, 1825 – March 13, 1882) was an American businessman whose extensive land holdings became the Southern California communities of Newhall, Saugus and Valencia, and the city of Santa Clarita.
Life
Born in Saugus, Ma ...
, a successful San Francisco auctioneer, as vice-president, and placing the company headquarters in San Francisco. Donahue, Dame and Newhall are thus credited as the three co-founders of the line.
Funding and construction
The construction contractors (Houston & McLaughlin) agreed to be paid $2 million consisting of $500,000 in cash, $500,000 in county-issued bonds, $500,000 in mortgage bonds, and $500,000 in company stock in exchange for completing the line between San Francisco and San Jose by October 1, 1863.
The SF&SJ issued of stock in 1861 to fund construction, owned by the following major shareholders:
* , City of San Francisco
* , County of San Mateo
* , County of Santa Clara
* , construction contractors (A.H. Houston and C. McLaughlin)
* , other individual shareholders
* (approximately), retained by SF&SJ
Voters in the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara passed the propositions to purchase the stock in May 1861.
The cost per mile was approximately , based on a total cost of $2 million for of rail, comparable to the average cost per rail mile based on railroads built nationwide through 1861.
However, the actual cash on hand was limited to the amount contributed by the three counties and approximately $100,000 from individual subscribers.
With the Civil War consuming men and material, iron suppliers were only willing to deal with cash, not credit, and several members of the SF&SJ board of directors, including
Peter Donahue,
Henry Newhall
Henry Mayo Newhall (May 13, 1825 – March 13, 1882) was an American businessman whose extensive land holdings became the Southern California communities of Newhall, Saugus and Valencia, and the city of Santa Clarita.
Life
Born in Saugus, Ma ...
, and
Charles B. Polhemus used their personal influence and effort to secure material for the railroad.
Construction wage scale on railroads, at $27 per month with board, was substantially lower than that of common laborers in the mines or in the cities at the time. Partly because of the low wage scale, the SF&SJ Railroad was one of the first railroad to experiment with hiring Chinese railroad workers to keep cost down.
Hiring Chinese in the early and mid 1860s was not controversial and garnered few notices, as it was a short period of time of less hostile anti-Chinese sentiments.
Grading and construction of the line began in Santa Clara county on July 15, 1861.
The hardest part of construction was the cut at Bernal Hill in San Francisco, which was being cut through at both ends in Spring 1862 in earnest with "heavy and continuous assaults of powder". After ten months of labor, the
Bernal Cut, about 2,700 feet in length and 43 feet in depth in the deepest part, was completed in March 1863.
Three months later, track laying began at Seventeen Mile House in June 1863.
Four months later, the railroad was opened for excursion service between San Francisco and
Menlo Park on October 17, 1863. The first train left Mission Station at approximately 10:30 AM; it consisted of six passenger cars, two baggage cars, and one freight car pulled by two locomotives and carried approximately 400 passengers.
The train ran to the end of the line in Mayfield (in Santa Clara county, two miles south of Menlo Park) before turning around and returning to Menlo Park, where the passengers disembarked for a SF&SJ-sponsored picnic. Among the passengers enjoying that day's excursion were two Governors:
Leland Stanford
Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American industrialist and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 8th governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented California in the United States Se ...
of California and
A. C. Gibbs of Oregon.
This occurred nine days before the first rail of the great Pacific Railroad was even laid in
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
.
![1864-0602 SF&SJ RR regular freight](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/1864-0602_SF%26SJ_RR_regular_freight.jpg)
A few months later, the line to San Jose was completed on January 16, 1864.
The first train to San Jose departed at 9:55 AM and arrived in Santa Clara nearly three hours later after "liberal stopping periods" in San Mateo and Redwood City. The second train departed at 11:15 AM after adding several cattle cars to accommodate the estimated 700–800 passengers; that second train stopped briefly in San Mateo to take on fuel and water, and proceeded past waiting passengers at Redwood City and Mountain View, arriving in Santa Clara by 12:45 PM.
The two trains proceeded together to San Jose just after 1:00 PM, and were greeted by a thirteen-gun salute upon arrival. After several speeches by SF&SJ leaders and local dignitaries, a large barbecue was held, with the first return train departing around 4:00 PM, pulled by three locomotives, and the second return train departing around 9:00 PM.
The railroad cut what had previously been an eight-hour trip by "steamboat and stagecoach" to three-and-a-half hours.
In February 1864, the SF&SJ advertised regular passenger service on four trains per day, with the trip scheduled to take two hours, twenty minutes each way.
More importantly, the railroad opened a new economical means to transport goods to market. By June 1864 a regular freight train was added. In October 1864 the freight train (with passenger car attached) was leaving San Jose at 5am and arriving San Francisco at 8:50am; the return train leaving San Francisco 4:15pm and arriving San Jose 8:15pm. With the decline of placer mining, the completion of the railroad enabled the ascendancy of agriculture as a major new industry in California.
Southern Pacific and later years
The
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
(SP) acquired the company in March 1868,
and the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific were consolidated as the Southern Pacific on October 12, 1870,
nearly seven years to the day after the first trains ran between San Francisco and Menlo Park.
SP upgraded the line in the early 20th century by laying down a second track and building several alternative routes and shortcuts, including the
Dumbarton Cutoff, which created the first bridge across San Francisco Bay; and the
Bayshore Cutoff, which rerouted the line between San Francisco and San Bruno to the east of
San Bruno Mountain
San Bruno Mountain is horst fault block mountain located in northern San Mateo County, California; with some northern slopes crossing over into southern San Francisco, it is also surrounded by San Francisco Bay and the cities of Brisbane, Colma ...
, along the
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
shoreline. The alignment of
BART
Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc.
Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...
in San Mateo County follows the right-of-way established by the SF&SJ west of San Bruno Mountain that was abandoned with the opening of the Bayshore Cutoff.
In 1977 SP petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission to discontinue the Peninsula Commute service, and the State of California took over financial responsibility in July 1980. SP eventually sold the entire Peninsula Commute right-of-way to the
Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far ...
in 1991, which currently operates the
commuter rail
Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...
service known as
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as far ...
over the route. The
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
maintains trackage rights over the line for freight traffic.
Route
Design
The ''Daily Alta California'' (October 1863) called this SF&SJ segment the westernmost portion of the transcontinental
Pacific Railroad
The Pacific Railroad (not to be confused with Union Pacific Railroad) was a railroad based in Missouri. It was a predecessor of both the Missouri Pacific Railroad and St. Louis-San Francisco Railway.
The Pacific was chartered by Missouri in 1849 ...
, with another section planned by the
Western Pacific Railroad Company to connect San Jose with Sacramento, where it would join with the
Central Pacific's rail line being built then east to Truckee.
In order to preserve planned compatibility with transcontinental rail traffic, the line was laid at what is now
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
width using redwood ties and 50-pound-per-yard (25 kg/m) rail.
The line was completed as a single track with no tunnels and only a few bridges, the longest of which was a trestle over
Islais Creek
Islais Creek or Islais Creek Channel (previously known as Du Vrees Creek, Islais Channel and Islais Swamp) is a small creek in San Francisco, California. The name of the creek is derived from a Salinan Native American word "''slay''" or "''islay' ...
.
The most extensive cut required was the big cut at Bernal Hill, more than long and deep at its deepest.
In October 1863, the line had only been partially completed between the Mission and Mayfield stations; the ''Daily Alta'' noted the SF&SJ had been negotiating with the
Market Street Railway and speculated the SF&SJ might use the Market Street Railway approach to Fourth Street in San Francisco.
Rolling stock
The SF&SJ started excursion service in October 1863 with three locomotives, six passenger cars, and approximately twenty freight cars.
Each engine cost and could haul six passenger cars; the passenger cars cost each and had a seated capacity of sixty passengers; the freight cars each cost approximately .
The locomotives were named the ''San Francisco'', ''San José'', and ''T. Dame'' (after the president of the SF&SJ).
With the exception of the single
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
switcher
A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...
, number 8, all SF&SJ locomotives were the
American 4-4-0 type typical of that era. The 17-ton ''San Francisco'' and ''San José'' were built in 1862 by
Norris Locomotive Works
The Norris Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that produced nearly one thousand railroad engines between 1832 and 1866. It was the dominant American locomotive producer during most of ...
of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. The third locomotive was built in
by
Mason Machine Works
The Mason Machine Works was a machinery manufacturing company located in Taunton, Massachusetts, between 1845 and 1944. The company became famous for an early invention by its creator, William Mason, the self-acting mule, first patented in 1840 ...
, and weighed 30 tons. Locomotives numbered 4 and 5 weighing 23 tons each were built by
Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works
The Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works, located in Paterson, New Jersey, manufactured steam railroad locomotives from 1852 until it was merged with seven other manufacturers to form American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in 1901.
History
The firm wa ...
of
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
in 1863.
The first full-sized steam locomotive produced in the state of California was built for the SF&SJ by the
Union Iron Works
Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. ...
in San Francisco. It was appropriately named the ''California''. Its inaugural run was August 30, 1865, during which it set a speed record of .
Union Iron works also built a similar 28-ton locomotive number 7 and the 18-ton switcher number 8 in 1865. Norris built two more SF&SJ locomotives weighing 26 tons and 28 tons in 1867, while McKay and Aldus of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
built two 30-ton locomotives.
Rhode Island Locomotive Works
Rhode Island Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing company in Providence, Rhode Island. The factory produced more than 3,400 locomotives between 1867 and 1906, when the plant's locomotive production was shut down. At its peak, the ...
built a 30-ton locomotive for SF&SJ in 1868, as did Cooke; and
Schenectady Locomotive Works
The Schenectady Locomotive Works built railroad locomotives from its founding in 1848 through its merger into American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in 1901.
After the 1901 merger, ALCO made the Schenectady plant its headquarters in Schenectady, New ...
built two more. 1870 brought another 30-ton locomotive from Mason and two 33-ton locomotives from Cooke.
[
]
Charles B. Polhemus
In 1854, Charles B. Polhemus, purchased the land which would later become Central Park (San Mateo)[
] he built a mansion on the grounds.
In 1862, Commodore Robert F. Stockton
Robert Field Stockton (August 20, 1795 – October 7, 1866) was a United States Navy commodore, notable in the capture of California during the Mexican–American War. He was a naval innovator and an early advocate for a propeller-driven, steam-p ...
sold Rancho Potrero de Santa Clara to Charles B. Polhemus and Henry Newhall
Henry Mayo Newhall (May 13, 1825 – March 13, 1882) was an American businessman whose extensive land holdings became the Southern California communities of Newhall, Saugus and Valencia, and the city of Santa Clarita.
Life
Born in Saugus, Ma ...
, who planned to run railroad tracks through the Santa Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley is a geologic trough in Northern California that extends 90 miles (145 km) south–southeast from San Francisco to Hollister. The longitudinal valley is bordered on the west by the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the east ...
.
In 1868, the Robinson Trust was formed by Alfred Robinson, Abel Stearns
Abel Stearns (February 9, 1798 – August 23, 1871) was an American trader who came to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, Alta California in 1829 and became a major landowner and cattle rancher and one of the area's wealthiest citizens.
Early life
Stea ...
, Samuel Brannan
Samuel Brannan (March 2, 1819 – May 5, 1889) was an American settler, businessman, journalist, and prominent Mormon who founded the '' California Star'', the first newspaper in San Francisco, California. He is considered the first to publici ...
, E. F. Northam, Charles B. Polhemus, and Edward Martin.
In 1869, Polhemus bought Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad was a Mexican land grant in present day southern Monterey County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to José Rafael Gonzalez. The grant extended along the Nacimiento River and Stony Creek, wes ...
and sold it in 1872 to his business partner, Henry Mayo Newhall
Henry Mayo Newhall (May 13, 1825 – March 13, 1882) was an American businessman whose extensive land holdings became the Southern California communities of Newhall, Saugus and Valencia, and the city of Santa Clarita.
Life
Born in Saugus, ...
. Polhemus bought Rancho El Piojo at a foreclosure sale, and sold it in 1871 to his business partner, Henry Mayo Newhall
Henry Mayo Newhall (May 13, 1825 – March 13, 1882) was an American businessman whose extensive land holdings became the Southern California communities of Newhall, Saugus and Valencia, and the city of Santa Clarita.
Life
Born in Saugus, ...
. Rancho El Piojo and Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad was a Mexican land grant in present day southern Monterey County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to José Rafael Gonzalez. The grant extended along the Nacimiento River and Stony Creek, wes ...
became part of the
* San Francisco and Alameda Railroad
The San Francisco and Alameda Railroad (SF&A) was a short-lived railroad company in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. The railroad line opened 1864–1865 from Alameda Terminal on Alameda Island to Hayward, California, with ferry ...
* San Francisco and Oakland Railroad
The San Francisco and Oakland Railroad (SF&O) was built in 1862 to provide ferry-train service from a San Francisco ferry terminal connecting with railroad service through Oakland to San Antonio. In 1868 Central Pacific Railroad decided that Oaklan ...
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Francisco San Jose Railroad
Defunct California railroads
Predecessors of the Southern Pacific Transportation Company
Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area
History of San Francisco
19th century in San Jose, California
Railway companies established in 1860
Railway companies disestablished in 1870
Mission District, San Francisco
1863 establishments in California
1870 disestablishments in California
Railway lines opened in 1863