The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad

IN MAY, 1887, the first train to travel Santa Fe all the way puffed into the California Southern depot in Los Angeles. This event ended a six-year struggle between the two railroads which had begun when Jay Gould and Colis P. Huntington had joined forces in an all-out attempt to hold the Santa Fe Railroad at the Colorado River. William B. Strong, who had been elected president of the Santa Fe in 1881, was forced to compromise; for the time being the Santa Fe scrapped its plans to build a line into California. The agreement between the two railroads allowed the Southern Pacific to build from Mojave to a junction with the Atlantic and Pacific at Needles, and Santa Fe trains were allowed to use the Southern Pacific tracks into Los Angeles. This uneasy truce between the railroad giants was unsatisfactory from the beginning; President Strong bitterly complained that the Southern Pacific had broken the spirit of the agreement by deliberately diverting traffic from his railroad by routing freight and passengers through El Paso and Ogden. If the Santa Fe was to survive as an independent railroad it was imperative that it have its own tracks to some seaport in California. The Santa Fe was in no financial condition to build such a

Archaeology · Geography · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · History · Transport and Economic Policies

• Iron Horses and an Inner Harbor at San Pedro Bay, 1867-1890

  Richard W Barsness•Pacific Historical Review•1965

  Add to list

• The Entrance of the Santa Fé Railroad into California

  L Lesley, Lewis B Lesley•Pacific Historical Review•1939

  Add to list