California Central Railroad
"[1] With the help of the Chinese laborers, CCRR was able to complete in October 1861 the first division of 18.5 miles of rails from Folsom to Lincoln, which was probably the first platted railroad town in California.
[5]: 55 Building the CCRR was under the management contract dated May 1, 1857, of C. L. Wilson, who had served in a similar capacity with Sacramento Valley Railroad.
After securing, on his trip to the East, sufficient funds and supplies for the railroad construction, Wilson returned to look for grading/bridging contractor(s) for the first division of the CCRR, which extended some eighteen miles from Folsom and crossed the American River.
[10]: 215 The heaviest grading on the road to Lincoln was in the first five miles from Folsom to the American river and beyond, which involved three main cuts that demanded the use of powder.
The American river was crossed by building a single-span 300-ton truss bridge, 213 feet long, adapted from a design by S.W.
Meanwhile, with the help of the Chinese laborers, CCRR was finally able to bring to completion on October 14, 1861, a 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge line on one track between Folsom and Lincoln.
In November 1862, in an attempt to extend the CCRR road from Lincoln towards Marysville, Col. Wilson was one of several to incorporate the Yuba Railroad, with Samuel Brannan as President.
The following summer, the company entered into contract with Col. Wilson to build the extension from Lincoln to Marysville, who then left for the Atlantic states to secure the iron necessary.
[24] A year later in August 1865, Central Pacific maneuvered its way to buy controlling interest in the management of Sacramento Valley, the trunk line to CCRR, thereby diverting the profitable over-mountain Washoe trade and travel, worth several million dollars annually, to Central Pacific.
[29] On July 22, 1868, the CCRR company was foreclosed and existing operations were purchased by the California and Oregon Railroad (of 1868), which was subsequently consolidated into the Central Pacific in August 1870.
