El Paso Railroad Timeline
This timeline covers some of the major historical events that would influence the arrival of the railroads into the El Paso Area Prior to 1881. While the decades before the arrival of the railroad are filled with the well known political controversy in the United States that will influence the timing of the arrival of the railroads to El Paso, Texas. Other Events like the 1848 War between the United States and the Republic of Mexico and the subsequent Gadsden purchase influence the arrival of railroads in the Chihuahua desert.
1827
On February 28, 1827: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first U.S. railway chartered for commercial transport of passengers and freight.
1845
December 29, 1845: Texas enters the Union.
1848
1848 US Mexican War takes place.
1854
June 8, 1854: Gadsden Purchase is ratified by both Mexico and the United States.
1856
1856: The Government Bridge, or Arsenal Bridge, becomes the first Railroad bridge to span the Mississippi River between Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa.
1857
1857: The locomotive that became El Paso & Southwestern #1 was constructed for the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railway by Breese Kneeland of New Jersey.
1859
1859: The Reading Railroad is the first railroad to use coal as a locomotive fuel.
1861
April 1861: US Civil War Begins
1862
July 1, 1862: Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862.
1865
April 9 1865: Confederate General Lee Surrenders at Appomattox Court House
December 1865: Southern Pacific Railroad Company was formed.
1866
July 1866: The US Congress passes a bill authorizing the Southern Pacific to build From San Francisco to the California state line near the 35th parallel.
1869
May 10, 1869: the last spike was placed on the first US transcontinental railroad.
1871
March 3, 1871: The US Congress approves a land Grant for the Texas Pacific Railway to build a Railroad from Marshall, Texas to San Diego California.
1872
December 1872: By mid-December 1872, 300 men and 20 wagons were in El Paso to lay out the Texas & Pacific Railway.
1873
1873: The City of El Paso is incorporated. Population about 200 people.