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Railroads in California
The Railroads in California played a vital role in the State's early development as well as the explosive growth that followed. The establishment of America's transcontinental rail lines permanently linked California to the rest of the country, and the far-reaching transportation systems that grew out of them during the century that followed contributed immeasurably to the state’s unrivaled social, political, and economic development. When California was admitted to the Union in 1850, and for almost two decades thereafter, it sat isolated from all other states, the country’s lone outpost on the Pacific. Pioneers wishing to emigrate to the Gold Coast were faced with but three options: a four-month windjammer voyage around the Horn; through the malaria-infested jungles of Panama on horseback; or, an arduous weeks- or even months-long trek via stage coach, covered wagon, on horseback, or (in many cases) by foot across hundreds of miles of open desert and vast mountain ranges, risking Indian attack, starvation, and other hazards.[1]
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