California Pacific Railroad - A Shorter Transcontinental Route

A Shorter Transcontinental Route

While the transcontintal railroad was the first railway line to cross the U.S., it wasn't truly a transcontinental line because it terminated at Sacramento, short of the Pacific destination of San Francisco.

The first truly transcontinental railroad was through Stockton, over Altamont Pass and thence via Niles Canyon to the San Francisco Bay Area, a distance of 140 miles (230 km). That line was constructed by Leland Stanford's Central Pacific Railroad subsidiary the Western Pacific Railroad (of 1862). The route over Altamont Pass was completed in 1869. (This railroad is unrelated to the Western Pacific Railroad (of 1916) that ran to Salt Lake City via the Feather River Canyon.)

The other route via Stockton, to Banta, thence to Martinez to Oakland was 151 miles (243 km).

The Central Pacific was searching for a shorter route to the Bay Area; the recently completed (1868) California Pacific was the basis for a route of about 90 miles (140 km).

In July 1871 the Central Pacific offered to buy the Cal-P but their offer was rejected. Central Pacific announced plans to build a parallel route of the Cal-P but diverging at Suisun via the Suisun Marsh to Benicia. The California Pacific, facing financial and expansion difficulties, finally was sold to the Central Pacific in 1876.

The Central Pacific shifted traffic from its mainline via Napa Junction to Vallejo in favor of a line across the Suisun Marsh to Benicia. The Central Pacific began construction in 1877 and completed the line across the Suisun Marsh to Benicia (17 miles) in 1879. The 17 miles (27 km) of track took so long to build because of the unstable subgrade through the marsh, requiring tons of crushed rock to stabilize the subgrade. A railroad ferry was established between Benicia and Port Costa.