CASANFRA-L Archives

From: Su Jacobsen <>
Subject: [CASANFRA] Re: Judah Street in San Francisco
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 21:45:30 -0800

At 02:13 PM 11/13/00 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi!
>
> I know someone has a book telling who all the streets in San Francisco
>are named after. Would you please check to see if Judah Street is named
>after a lawyer named Charles Judah. He was a brother to Theodore Dehone
>Judah of Transcontinental Railroad fame. Thank You!

No. The street was named for engineer and dreamer, Theodore J. Judah. Born
in 1826 in CT. He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.
He arrived in San Francisco in 1854. He first established his place of
business in Sacramento.

Judah completed many projects. He had engineered a short line railway out
of Sacramento, completed in 1856. He surveyed large stretches of the Sierra
Nevada in search of a possible railway passage through the mountains. He
instigated discussion in the CA state legislature in 1860 which brought
about the Pacific Railroad Convention which brought several East Coast
players into the play for a long-distance railway from Sacramento. The
project died in Washington.

He later teamed up with Daniel W. Strong, mine owner and engineer. They
further explored the Sierra - especially around Dutch Flat where Strong had
a mine. Topographically, this area represented a pretty reasonable access
to the Donner Pass. Judah did the mapping. The partners formed the Central
Pacific Railroad Company of California.

Back in San Francisco, Judah met with Huntington and Hopkins amongst others.
We know these two to later become half of "The Big Four" along with Crocker
and Stanford. The group sent Judah back to Washington. He came home again
in failure.

He didn't give up. He came up with another proposal - to make a railway
line from Folsom (the beginning of the foothills out of Sacramento) to the
Nevada border. They couldn't raise enough money to get state approval, so
another meeting was set up. He dragged the monetary aspect into the
discussion - stressing the importance of improved connections to the rich
Comstock area. He had come up with a plan for improved routes to the
region. Huntington and other moneyed men bit. The money was put up.

He tricked them. After working the project for awhile he announced that he
had found a way to make a ton of money. He proposed a railway moving piles
of low-grade ore that would be heaped up at around the mines. All this low
grade ore could be moved to a suitable place for processing, assuring a
major profit. They bit again. They sent him back to Washington.

In Washington, the most pressing issues surrounded the Civil War. However a
clever Judah stated that a transcontinental railroad would be vital to the
Union effort. He made sure that he emphasized the increasing trends toward
California and Nevada leaning towards the Confederate position. Congress
agreed and a law was signed by Lincoln. The terms and agreements were very
generous indeed.

The Big Four moved quickly to create a railway construction company. The
greedy capitalists aced Judah out of the operation. In addition, they
doctored Judah's surveys, routing the railway over more severe terrain, so
that they could profit from the federal government's high subsidy rate for
mountain construction. These four went on to become some of the richest men
of America. All Judah got was $100,000 to shut up and go away - which he
died. Judah left San Francisco, never to return. He died a yellow-fever
stricken and emotionally dejected man in NY.

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• [CASANFRA] Re: Judah Street in San Francisco by Su Jacobsen <>