National Register Listing

Comanche Crossing of the Kansas Pacific Railroad

On Union Pacific Railroad tracks E of the Strasburg depot, Strasburg, CO

The account given below accurately and graphically illustrates the importance of Commanche Crossing:

NO. 1 -- May 10, 1869, AT PROMONTORY, UTAH there was correctly
celebrated the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, completing this great project, as authorized by Congress, in the Pacific Railway Acts dated and signed by the President on July 1, 1862, and July 2, 1864. These gave, in Section 9, the Central Pacific the option of starting its end of the line either from the Pacific Coast at or near San Francisco OR Sacramento, and to the Union Pacific the option of establishing a car ferry OR building an immense bridge, that could not interfere with navigation, across the Missouri River at Omaha. Both companies chose the easier method and fulfilled their joint obligation by completing a continuous line of railroad between Omaha and Sacramento on May lo, 1869 at Promontory, Utah. Claims of what that accomplished have been exaggerated. It did not complete a chain of railroads between the tidewaters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, etc, etc. On that date there remained a gap of 111 miles without rails between Sacramento and Alameda Wharf and another gap 1500 feet long at Omaha."

No. 2 -- SEPTEMBER 6, 1869, AT SAN LEANDRO, CALIFORNIA, the 111-mile gap was closed and the first train from the east ever to reach Pacific tidewater pulled up to the Alameda Wharf on San Francisco Bay, and its passengers were ferried five miles across the bay to San Francisco. This rail route from Sacramento, through Stockton, Lathrop, Tracy, Niles Canyon, San Leandro to Alameda and Oakland (reached November 8, 1869) was the only one used for the next nine years or until September 8, 1878, when the Tracy-Richmond cut off was built. Ignoring the 1500-foot water gap at Omaha this, September 6, 1869, would be the completion date of the first tidewater to tidewater chain of railroads across the United States."

No. 3 -- JANUARY 7, 1870 AT OMAHA, NEBRASKA the last gap of 1500 feet was temporarily closed for 66 days (while nature's ice stopped navigation) by laying a track across the ice to connect the Union Pacific tracks on the west bank of the Missouri River with the North western's track on the east shore. On that date, for the first time in history, the two oceans were joined by continuous parallel ribbons of iron. When the ice broke up on March 14, 1870, car-ferrying was again resumed for another ten months. Accepting this temporary weak link the chain ocean to ocean existed for 66 days only.

No. 4 -- AUGUST 15, 1870 NEAR STRASBURG, COLORADO the first permanent chain of railroads from coast to coast was completely forged, and this route through Denver using the Missouri Rider bridge (completed June 30, 1869) at Kansas City and the Quincy bridge over the Mississippi River was the only all rail route that existed from August 15, 1870, until March 22, 1872, when the$ 2,870,000 Union Pacific bridge was completed 50 feet above the Missouri River at Omaha. That structure reduced the all-rail Atlantic to Pacific route from 3500 miles via Kansas City to 3230 miles via Omaha. During that 18 months period not many people or tons of freight, traveled that extra 270 miles just to avoid the 1500-foot water hazard at Omaha. However, they would get to see Denver and Kansas City and ride over the only bridge, railroad or highway, spanning Missouri for its entire navigable length from Fort Benton, Montana to the Mississippi north of St. Louis. Also, the only Pullman and dining car service between Denver and Chicago was via Kansas City during that period."

In summary, the Comanche Crossing site is nominated for its significance in railroad history. The completion of the line at Comanche Crossing truly and literally tied the country with a continuous belt of railroad tracks.

Local significance of the site:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.