Early Period

Year	Notable Events
1610	Santa Fe established as the seat of the Spanish colony of New Mexico.
1822	Trade route established between Independence, Missouri, and Santa Fe, New Mexico, named the Santa Fe Trail.
1848	New Mexico comes under United States control after the war with Mexico.
1854	Cyrus K. Holliday moves from Pennsylvania to Kansas and helps found the city of Topeka.
1859	Kansas legislature grants a charter to build the Atchison & Topeka Railroad.
1860	Holliday and a group of other men formally organize the railroad at a meeting in a law office in Atchison.
1861	Population of Kansas grows to 143,000 people.
1863	Congress passes land-grant legislation, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, for 3 million acres along the proposed route from Atchison to Topeka with the stipulation that it reach the Colorado border by the end of 1872. Railroad changes name to Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad ("AT&SF", "Santa Fe").
1866	Congress passes act to create the Atlantic & Pacific Company ("A&P") to build a railroad from Springfield, Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean.
1868	After four unsuccessful years of the organizers trying to build capital, Congress authorizes Santa Fe to purchase unused land on the Pottawattomie Indian Reservation for $1 an acre and sell it back to farmers for the current market value. Construction officially begins on October 30, 1868 in Topeka.
1869	A bridge over the Kansas River connecting the Santa Fe to the Kansas Pacific Railroad allows material to arrive easier and speeds up progress on building. The main line consists of 7 miles of track. The first locomotive pulls a two-car load on a promotional excursion on April 26, 1869. Financial control of Santa Fe shifts to Boston, Massachusetts.
1871	The line reaches Newton, 137 miles from Topeka.
1872	The line opens from Topeka to Atchison on May 16, 1872, which connected in to lines of other railroads. The Wichita & Southwestern, a Santa Fe affiliate, completes a connection from Newton to Wichita. Crews work frantically to reach the Colorado border by the end of the year, and on December 28 they reach the border and secure the land grant given 9 years earlier.
1873	The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway ("GC&SF") is chartered by citizens of Galveston, Texas.
1874	The Southern Pacific Railway ("SP") begins the famous Tehachapi Loop using steep grades and innovative looping to cross the Tehachapi Mountains at Wahlong, California.
1875	Santa Fe reaches Kansas City by leasing several short lines which were later merged into the railroad. The GC&SF begins construction of its main line heading toward Arcola, Texas.
1876	Santa Fe affiliate Pueblo & Arkansas Valley completes a line from the Colorado border to Pueblo. A silver rush breaks out in Leadville, 150 miles northwest of Pueblo in the Colorado Rockies. Santa Fe and Denver & Rio Grande ("Rio Grande") workers clash over the rights to the Royal Gorge, the only way to get to Leadville to service the miners. The A&P builds 293 miles of line in Missouri but is defaulting on interest payments. The Southern Pacific Railway ("SP") completes the Tehachapi Loop.
1877	William Barstow Strong becomes general manager of the Santa Fe.
1878	Santa Fe pushes southward from Pueblo toward the New Mexico border, beating the Rio Grande to the Raton Pass, thereby laying claim to the most direct route into New Mexico. The GC&SF, about to go bankrupt, is purchased by George Sealy after only building 60 miles of its main line.
1879	Santa Fe chief engineer A. A. Robinson decides not to go into Santa Fe, New Mexico, due to difficult terrain. The Sonora Railway, established in Mexico by Santa Fe, completes a line from the port of Guaymas on the Gulf of California to Nogales on the Arizona border thanks to a Mexican land grant of 15,000 acres per mile that SP was hoping to get. The A&P is sold to the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway ("Frisco"). A single-track tunnel is built at the summit of Raton Pass to make crossing the mountains easier.
1880	The Santa Fe line reaches Lamy, New Mexico, and builds an 18-mile spur into Santa Fe. The line reaches Albuquerque two months later. Santa Fe purchases half of the A&P from Frisco. The New Mexico & Arizona, another subsidiary of Santa Fe, uses a piece of the SP line to connect from Benson, Arizona, through Albuquerque to Deming, New Mexico, and south to Nogales; this gives Santa Fe a 1,700 mile path from Kansas City to the Pacific Ocean at Nogales, thus completing the A&P mandate. Construction begins on the western part of the A&P from New Mexico to California. Santa Fe and Rio Grande reach an agreement about the Royal Gorge, giving Rio Grande the pass but halting the expansion of Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas. The California Southern Railroad is established to build from San Diego through San Bernardino to meet the A&P.
1881	William Barstow Strong becomes president of Santa Fe.
1882	Rio Grande gives Santa Fe permission to lay standard gauge track next to its narrow gauge line from Pueblo to Denver, thus allowing the Santa Fe access to the city. Strong and Sealy begin talks for Santa Fe to purchase the GC&SF.
1883	A&P construction pushes into Arizona, reaching the Colorado River south of Needles while SP finishes a line from Mojave, California, to Needles to block A&P entry into California; the two lines connect on July 12, 1883, but SP refuses to allow A&P/Santa Fe access to their lines. After successfully fighting with the SP for the right to cross its lines at Colton, the California Southern opens its line to San Bernardino. Strong negotiates with SP to purchase the Needles-Mojave line thanks to the SP president overextending his fortune and needing additional capital.
1884	SP temporarily leases the Needles-Mojave line as well as the Mojave-San Francisco line to Santa Fe, both at high rates.
1885	Construction of the connection from the California Southern line in San Bernardino, over the San Andreas fault in the San Gabriel mountains via Cajon Pass, and to the Needles-Mojave line at Barstow is completed; Cajon Pass, 25 miles east of San Bernardino, has a net change of elevation of 2,750 feet. Santa Fe receives rights to travel along the SP line from Colton to Los Angeles.
1886	Strong and Sealy reach an agreement and the GC&SF is purchased by Santa Fe for $8M of Santa Fe stock.
1887	Santa Fe subsidiary Denver & Santa Fe builds a second line into Denver from Pueblo using a piece of the Missouri Pacific line that leaves Pueblo from the east. Santa Fe extends its own line to Los Angeles from San Bernardino via Pasadena. Strong finances the aggressive construction of 375 miles of GC&SF track to Purcell, Oklahoma, meeting another Santa Fe line from Arkansas City, Kansas. A bridge is constructed over the Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa.
1888	Due to flooding problems along the existing San Diego-San Bernardino line, a new line -- nicknamed the "Surf Line" due to its proximity to the Pacific, is constructed. A San Bernardino-Riverside-Los Angeles line is constructed and becomes the primary freight route into the city. The Chicago, Santa Fe & California Railway, a subsidiary of Santa Fe, completes a 350 mile line from Kansas City to Alcona, Illinois; it meets the Chicago & St. Louis line at Alcona, thus establishing a Kansas City-Chicago route.
1889	Santa Fe either owns or partially owns 8,118 miles of track, reaching Chicago, Galveston, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The California Southern is absorbed by a subsidiary of Santa Fe.
1890	Santa Fe acquires holdings in the Frisco.
1891	Santa Fe begins using Dearborn Station in Chicago, which becomes its main base of operations for all passenger trains until passenger service is discontinued in 1971. The Santa Fe, Prescott, & Phoenix Railway is incorporated to build a line from the Santa Fe main line at Ash Fork, Arizona, to Phoenix.
1892	Construction of the Ash Fork-Phoenix line begins.
1893	Santa Fe enters bankruptcy reorganization due to worsening economic conditions in the United States. Strong is accused of building too rapidly by the banks holding the Santa Fe bonds and is forced out of the presidency. La Grande Station in Los Angeles is opened.
1895	The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, a new corporation, purchases the Santa Fe assets which are currently in receivership. Edward P. Ripley, a conservative focused on asset management, is elected president of the new Santa Fe and eventually brings the Santa Fe debt down to the lowest per mile of any railroad. The Frisco holdings are sold and several unprofitable lines are abandoned. Santa Fe assumes full control of the A&P lines across New Mexico and Arizona from the Frisco. The Ash Fork-Phoenix line, nicknamed the "Peavine," is completed. A special California-Chicago run breaks a record at 57 hours.
1897	Santa Fe and SP reach an agreement to trade the Sonora Railway and the Benson-Nogales line to SP in exchange for Santa Fe ownership of the Needles-Mojave line. Ripley approves an overhaul of the main Chicago-Los Angeles line, including several relocation projects that shortened the route by 50 miles.
1898	The San Francisco & San Joaquin Valley Railroad completes a 234-mile line from Bakersfield to Stockton, and Santa Fe acquires the tracks later in the year to provide a Santa Fe route through the San Joaquin Valley. The Pecos Valley & Northwestern Railway is set up as a joint venture of the Pecos Valley Railway and Santa Fe, acquiring the Pecos later that year. The line from Oklahoma to Amarillo is completed.
1899	Santa Fe leases SP tracks between Mojave and Bakersfield to connect the San Joaquin Valley line into the rest of its system, including the Tehachapi Loop. The Pecos Valley & Northwestern completes a line from Roswell, New Mexico, through Texico, Texas, to Amarillo.