Theodore Dehone Judah was an American civil engineer who was a central figure in the original promotion, establishment, and design of the First transcontinental railroad.
19 Facts About Theodore Judah
2.
Theodore Judah found investors for what became the Central Pacific Railroad.
3.
Theodore Judah was born in 1826 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Mary and The Rev Henry Raymond Judah, an Episcopal clergyman.
4.
At age 23, Theodore Judah married Anna Pierce on May 10,1849.
5.
Theodore Judah was elected member of the American Society of Civil Engineers on May 1853; at that time there were fewer than 800 civil engineers in the United States.
6.
Theodore Judah was hired in 1854 at age 28, by Colonel Charles Lincoln Wilson, as the Chief Engineer for the Sacramento Valley Railroad in California.
7.
On January 1857 in Washington DC, Theodore Judah published "A practical plan for building The Pacific Railroad", in which he outlined the general plan and argued for the need to do a detailed survey of a specific selected route for the railroad, not a general reconnaissance of several possible routes that had been done earlier.
8.
Theodore Judah returned noting that he had to find a specific practical route and some private financial backing to do a detailed engineering survey.
9.
In November 1860, Theodore Judah published "Central Pacific Railroad to California", in which he declared "the discovery of a practicable route from the city of Sacramento upon the divide between Bear River and the North Fork of the American, via Illinoistown, Dutch Flat, and Summit Valley to the Truckee River".
10.
Theodore Judah advocated the chosen Dutch Flat-Donner Pass route as the most practical one with maximum grades of one hundred feet per mile and 150 miles shorter than the route recommended in the government's reports.
11.
At this point in time, Theodore Judah had the CPRR backing to survey the route over the Sierra Nevada along which the railroad was to be built during the 1860s, as well as barometric reconnaissance of two other routes, which turned out to be inferior.
12.
On October 9,1861, the CPRR directors authorized Theodore Judah to go back to Washington DC, this time as the agent of CPRR, to procure "appropriations of land and US Bonds from the Government to aid in the construction of this road".
13.
On October 11,1861, Theodore Judah boarded a steamer in San Francisco headed for Panama.
14.
At Washington DC, Theodore Judah began an active campaign for a Pacific Railroad bill.
15.
Theodore Judah was made the clerk of the House subcommittee on the bill and obtained an appointment as secretary of the Senate subcommittee.
16.
Theodore Judah then went to New York to order supplies and sailed back to California on July 21,1862, having accomplished his mission in less than a year.
17.
Theodore Judah contracted the disease in Panama on a voyage with his wife to New York City, apparently becoming infected during their land passage across the Isthmus of Panama.
18.
Theodore Judah was traveling to New York to seek alternative financing to buy out the major investors.
19.
Theodore Judah died before his dream of a transcontinental railroad could be completed.