Theodore Judah Timeline, 1854 – 1864

Year: 2022

By Charles R. Spinks, M.S., P.E., M.ASCE

Compiled as a research reference, this document lays out a month-by-month chronology of civil engineer Theodore D. Judah’s activities from his arrival in California to his death in 1863, with a brief note on 1864. It tracks surveys, reports, political lobbying and key meetings that advanced the Sacramento Valley Railroad, Judah’s reconnaissance of Sierra Nevada passes, creation of the Central Pacific Railroad, and passage of the 1862 Pacific Railroad Act. Interwoven are contextual events—financial panics, Lincoln’s election, the Civil War, and milestones such as the first transcontinental telegraph—highlighting Judah’s pivotal technical and promotional role in launching America’s first transcontinental railroad.