San Francisco and San Jose Railroad

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.[2] The SF&SJ issued US$2,000,000 (equivalent to $65,140,000 in 2022) of stock in 1861 to fund construction, owned by the following major shareholders:[2][4]

• US$300,000 (equivalent to $9,770,000 in 2022), City of San Francisco
• US$100,000 (equivalent to $3,260,000 in 2022), County of San Mateo
• US$200,000 (equivalent to $6,510,000 in 2022), County of Santa Clara
• US$500,000 (equivalent to $16,290,000 in 2022), construction contractors (A.H. Houston and C. McLaughlin)
• US$285,300 (equivalent to $9,290,000 in 2022), other individual shareholders
• US$500,000 (equivalent to $16,290,000 in 2022) (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.[2] The cost per mile was approximately US$40,000 (equivalent to $1,300,000 in 2022), based on a total cost of $2 million for 49.3 miles (79.3 km) of rail, comparable to the average cost per rail mile based on railroads built nationwide through 1861.[2] However, the actual cash on hand was limited to the amount contributed by the three counties and approximately $100,000 from individual subscribers.[2] 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, and Charles B. Polhemus used their personal influence and effort to secure material for the railroad.[2]

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.[1][5] 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.[6]

Grading and construction of the line began in Santa Clara county[7] on July 15, 1861.[3] 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".[8] 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.[9] Three months later, track laying began at Seventeen Mile House in June 1863.[10]

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.[4] 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 of California and A. C. Gibbs of Oregon.[4] This occurred nine days before the first rail of the great Pacific Railroad was even laid in Sacramento.[11]

The shrill whistle of the engine, and the rattling of the cars so lately heard in your beautiful valley for the first time, will be sounds familiar to your children and children's children, until the angel, with one foot upon the sea and the other upon the dry land, shall declare that time shall be no more. Hereafter the citizens of San José and those of San Francisco will be neighbors, while the little county of San Mateo extends one hand over the iron track to her proud city sister of San Francisco, and the other to her charming rural sister of Santa Clara, and enfolds them in an embrace that can never be broken.

— Timothy Guy Phelps, Speech at the inauguration of service, January 16, 1864[2]

SF&SJ RR schedule and fare, January 1864

Ad for regular freight train on SF&SJ RR, effective 2 June 1864

A few months later, the line to San Jose was completed on January 16, 1864.[2] 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.[2] 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.[2]

The railroad cut what had previously been an eight-hour trip by "steamboat and stagecoach" to three-and-a-half hours.[12] 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.[13]

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.[14] With the decline of placer mining, the completion of the railroad enabled the ascendancy of agriculture as a major new industry in California.[6]

The Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) acquired the company in March 1868,[3] and the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific were consolidated as the Southern Pacific on October 12, 1870,[3] nearly seven years to the day after the first trains ran between San Francisco and Menlo Park.[15]^: 214 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, along the San Francisco Bay shoreline. The alignment of BART 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 in 1991, which currently operates the commuter rail service known as Caltrain over the route. The Union Pacific Railroad maintains trackage rights over the line for freight traffic.[16]

The SF&SJ started excursion service in October 1863 with three locomotives, six passenger cars, and approximately twenty freight cars.[4] Each engine cost US$15,000 (equivalent to $360,000 in 2022) and could haul six passenger cars; the passenger cars cost US$3,500 (equivalent to $80,000 in 2022) each and had a seated capacity of sixty passengers; the freight cars each cost approximately US$1,200 (equivalent to $30,000 in 2022).[4] The locomotives were named the San Francisco, San José, and T. Dame (after the president of the SF&SJ).[4]

With the exception of the single 0-4-0 switcher, 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 of Philadelphia. The third locomotive was built in Massachusetts by Mason Machine Works, and weighed 30 tons. Locomotives numbered 4 and 5 weighing 23 tons each were built by Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works of New Jersey in 1863.[18]

The first full-sized steam locomotive produced in the state of California was built for the SF&SJ by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco. It was appropriately named the California. Its inaugural run was August 30, 1865, during which it set a speed record of 67 miles per hour (108 km/h).[19] 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 built two 30-ton locomotives. Rhode Island Locomotive Works built a 30-ton locomotive for SF&SJ in 1868, as did Cooke; and Schenectady Locomotive Works built two more. 1870 brought another 30-ton locomotive from Mason and two 33-ton locomotives from Cooke.[18]