The herald., 1897-04-25
Valuable Summary of the Vari.
GUS Roads
AQUARTER CENTURy'S WORK
SYSTEMS EMBRACING OVER
1900 MILES
The Southern Pacific--The Santa Fe.
The Terminal--The Redondo.
Newport Road--San
Diego Lines

Railroads are the great levers which
move the world. Without railroads the
civilization of the nineteenth century
would be an impossibility.
Before Southern California had rail-
roads we had population of less than
30, 900 people. If railroads had not been
built 1t is doubtful If that population
would have very ma rally Increased
during the past tive five years.
Without railroads TO. orange Industry
could not have existed, except to the ex-
tent Of a few carloads for home con-
sumption and to ship to San Francisco
for the upper portion of the state.
without railroads the thousands of
acres devoted to deciduous fruits would
not have been planted.
without railroads the thousands of
people who annually come here from the
biizzard-stricken east would never visit
this coast to recuperatetheir energies
and leave their surplus cash.
Without railroads California would
today be practically an undeveloped
and an unknown state.
Civilization keeps pace with the steam
engine and before that civilizer the
savage of the human fossils retires to
find some other unknown country.
THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC SYSTEM
During the year 1868 Phineas Banning
commenced the construction of the Los
Angeles and San Pedro railroad. Find
ing 1t larger proposition than he was
able to handle he gave up the enterprise
and the work was completed by III. B.
Tichenor. This was the first railroad
built in Southern California. 1t extended
from Los Angeles Commercial Street de-
pot to Wilmington, a distance of 21
miles.
This road was operated by the Los An
geles and San Pedro Railroad company,
of which the late General E. E. Hewitt
was manager until April Is, 1874. when
the Southern Pacific company of Cali
fornia commenced operating the same.
and on the 18th of December of that year
this line was incorporated with the
Southern Pacific system with General
Hewitt as manager of the Los Angeles
division, which position he held for many
years.
Prior to this time the Southern Pacific
had been busy building their line up the
Dan JOdQulu NdhCys "AsA "a WV "a
reaching Los Angeles. and then building
possible.
Having secured foothold in this city
by the purchase of the Wilmington road,
work was at once pushed from Los An
geles northward to meet the line COM
ing down from the north. The road was
completed to San Fernando on April 10,
1874. At this point occurred a serious
delay in the construction of the San Fer
nando tunnel. which was over 62O0 feet
in length.
In the meantime the company had
some very heavy work to do in getting
through the Tehachepi mountains. The
grade was very heavy and the prob
lem of overcoming that grade was Sc
rious one. and it was solved only by the
construction of the celebrated loop
which attracted so much attention
throughout the railroad world.
The San Fernando tunnel was COM
pleted on the 9Th of September. 1876
having been nearly three years in con-
struction.
The completion of this tunnel opened
up railroad communication between San
Francisco and Los Angeles.
Prior to the completion of the line to
San Francisco the Los Angeles and In
dependence Railroad company was
formed with a view of building a wharf
at Truxton-afterwards changed to
Santa Monica-then building railroad
from that point to Los Angeles, then
eastward to San Bernardino county,
then through the Cajon Pass and across
the desert to the town of Independence,
in Inyo county. Senator John p. Jones
was at the head of this enterprise. This
road was completed from Santa Monica
to Los Angeles in December. 1875. The
depot for this road was built on San Pc
6ro street, near the Wolfskill orchard.
This line was never extended any fur
ther by the company that built 1t. but
on the 10th day of February. 1885, the
line to Santa Monica was purchased by
the Southern Pacific company and the
line was then extended so as to enable
the trains on that road to run into the
Southern Pacific depot
The first branch built by the Southern
Pacific in Southern California was the
Anaheim line, which left the Whining
ton road at the town of Florence, five
miles south Of Los Angeles. This line
/
miles long. and 1t was completed on the
14th # January, 1875.
This line was extended to Santa Ana
on the 18th of December. 1877. further
distance of seven miles. making the
branch 80 miles long from Los Angeles
In the meantime the main line had
been pushed onward towards the east
Spadra was reached in the spring Of
1876, Cotton was reached in the fall of
1875, and Yuma was reached on the 30th
of September, 1877.
The Southern Pacific company then
took a rest from railroad building for
nearly ten years. with the exception Of
extending the Wilmington road to San
Pedro, reaching that point August 15
1882
THE COAST LINE
The policy of the company seems to
have been adopted to provide a coast
line from Los Angeles northward along
the coast. via Ventura. Santa Barbara
and San Luis Obispo to Monterey and
San Francisrn. Work m this line was