What were the goals of the railroad companies in Southern California?

On October 13, 1880, the California Southern Railroad Company was chartered. Their goal was to build a line from National City, just south of San Diego, up to what is now Oceanside, and then to follow the Santa Margarita River to Fallbrook, and then northward through the Temecula canyon.



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Railroads had a significant impact when they were introduced to the American West in the 1870s. Rail access spurred white migration and land occupation, altered the cattle industry, and affected the soil ecosystem.

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Transcontinental Railroad Facts
  • It was built to connect the United States' East and West Coasts. ...
  • Approximately 1,800 miles of track. ...
  • The transcontinental railroad cost roughly $100 million. ...
  • Workers came from a wide range of backgrounds and ethnicity. ...
  • President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act.


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He got the backing of a group of Sacramento businessmen who would later become known as the Big Four: Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, and Mark Hopkins. They would go on to build the western half of the Railroad and own what would become known as the Southern Pacific Railway.

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It made commerce possible on a vast scale. In addition to transporting western food crops and raw materials to East Coast markets and manufactured goods from East Coast cities to the West Coast, the railroad also facilitated international trade.

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The rail workers wanted seven annual paid sick days, which would cost the railroads an estimated $321 million annually–less than 2% of their annual profit. But the railroads balked at this demand, despite posting record profits of $21.2 billion in the first three quarters of 2022 alone.

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Not only did the railroads transport raw materials used in industrial production, such as coal and iron ore, the railroads were also one of the largest consumers of raw materials in their own right. The growth of railroads thus led to growth in other industries, such as timber and coal.

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Within ten years of its completion, the railroad shipped $50 million worth of freight coast to coast every year. Just as it opened the markets of the west coast and Asia to the east, it brought products of eastern industry to the growing populace beyond the Mississippi.

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Impact on the United States Connecting the two American coasts made the economic export of Western resources to Eastern markets easier than ever before. The railroad also facilitated westward expansion, escalating conflicts between Native American tribes and settlers who now had easier access to new territories.

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Good and bad The railroad is credited, for instance, with helping to open the West to migration and with expanding the American economy. It is blamed for the near eradication of the Native Americans of the Great Plains, the decimation of the buffalo and the exploitation of Chinese railroad workers.

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