Arcadia Publishing: 7502 books

The Virginia & Truckee is the most famous short line railroad in American history. Brainchild of William Sharon and the Bank of California, the V&T hauled the silver and gold ore, the cordwood, and the mining timbers that made the 1870s �Big Bonanza� a reality. From the state capital at Carson City,...

US Navy rail operations on Oahu began in 1908 with construction railroads used to help build the shipyard. Expansion of Pearl Harbor to include the submarine base and the naval magazine on Kuahua Island required a permanent railroad, which was begun in 1911. This construction provided industrial employment...

The Market Street Railway Company thrived in an age when rails ruled San Francisco. Spanning the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the boom times of World War II, it had a long and legendary lifetime that is deeply ingrained in the city�s early identity. Gradually, however, it became challenged...

In the first half of the 20th century, Fontana Farms Company operated a hog ranch on the site where Kaiser Company Incorporated later erected one of the nation�s largest steel mills. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States was forced into an unprecedented escalation in...

Surveyors called the San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A) �The Impossible Railroad� because of its jagged, mountainous, and brutal desert route. The financier and driving force behind building this binational 148-mile rail connection to the east from San Diego, California, was businessman John D....

Summit County's Narrow-Gauge Railroads tells the story of the two railroads that fought for dominance in Summit County, Colorado, during the late 1800s and early 1900s: the Denver, South Park & Pacific and the Denver & Rio Grande. The two railroads developed an intense rivalry as they sought...

The year 2014 marks the centennial of the completion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP), celebrated by driving a �golden spike� at Cain Rock in October 1914. This achievement was the culmination of a massive, six-year engineering effort to connect rail lines ending at Willits with the early...

All aboard for this photographic journey through the unique railroad history of Niles Canyon, near the city of Fremont. The melodic wail of the steam whistle first echoed off these canyon walls in 1866 when the Western Pacific Railroad laid track into Niles as part of a planned route from San Jose to...

The Sacramento Southern Railroad was born into a famous railroad family and a busy railroad town in July 1903. The mighty Southern Pacific, which controlled the new line from the outset, built south from Sacramento along the eastern bank of the Sacramento River into the delta�s rich farmland area....

Starting with the first horse-drawn trolleys introduced by the San Diego Streetcar Company in 1886, San Diego’s history included the growth and decline of several trolley systems. After electricity arrived, San Diego was the site of early experimentation for electric trolleys on the West Coast and...

Upon the dedication of a new Capitol building in 1879, the city of Lansing was just beginning to emerge from the swampy wilderness of its recent past. As industry began to take root along the banks of the Grand River, Ransom Eli Olds brought his father's motor shop to national prominence with advancements...

Williamson College of the Trades was founded in 1888 by Quaker businessman and philanthropist Isaiah V. Williamson, whose objective was to provide financially disadvantaged young men with a useful trade. Located in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, the school accepted its first students in the fall of...

Fort Laramie was one of the most important frontier outposts of the American West. Founded as the trading post Fort William in 1834, the fort became a U.S. military post in 1849. Beginning in 1841, emigrants stopped at Fort Laramie while traveling the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Fort Laramie...

The first settlers came to the Brockport area soon after 1800. Located some twenty miles west of Rochester, the towns of Sweden and Clarkson, the village of Brockport, and a college were organized between 1814 and 1835. The Erie Canal, farm implement manufacturing, and higher education fostered their...