Sacramento Valley Transportation
Sacramento History Online
1 In the traditions of Sacramento Valley Native Americans, mysterious figures were transported over water in a raft to create the world. One dove from the raft into the water and came up with dirt. From that soil the world was formed.
2 The transportation by a raft is symbolic of the role of transportation in the evolution of local history. Paleo-Indians arrived about 12,000 years ago. The rich natural resources made the Sacramento Valley a "Garden of Eden." Permanent villages were established about 8,000 years ago. Native Americans walked and traveled the rivers and waterways with rafts. The later arriving Spanish entered the Valley by horse, British and American trappers entered by horse and on foot. Settlers from the Midwest and east coast arrived in wagon trains. Gold seekers walked over land along side wagons or by sea on sailing ships and later steamboats. By the late 1840's dreams of a transcontinental railroad were debated. In 1849 the "friends of a Rail Road to California” met in Boston to hear a proposal for a railroad from St. Louis to San Francisco. But the shorter transcontinental crossing at the Isthmus of Panama by a railroad would occur first in 1855. Meanwhile, the connection between San Francisco and Sacramento was improved by an expanding, fast, and efficient steamboat service. In 1856 the Sacramento Valley Railroad opened officially for service between Sacramento and Folsom.
3 Just as transportation improved travel, it also accelerated the economic development of California. In 1849, California gold fields were referred to as the "Extremity of Civilization" and in the next decade because of transportation, California began to impact the economy of the United States and eventually the world.
4 Passengers were moved by stagecoach. By 1854, many of the stage operators were merged by James Birch into the California Stage Company. Birch's stage line controlled eighty percent of the stagecoach traffic over 3,000 miles of routes connecting the western portion of the United States. In 1856, Birch lobbied Congress to establish a national wagon road. He presented Congress with a petition from Northern California with 75,000 signatures. As one of the largest petitions yet received by Congress, they responded by establishing three wagon roads to the Pacific Coast and appropriating $600,000 for a twice-weekly overland mail service from St. Louis to San Francisco.
5 The Sacramento region used great power in the decade of the 1850s, in spite of its small resident population, when compared to San Francisco. The largest portion of the state's population lived in the "Sacramento District." Sacramento representatives strongly influenced the State's Constitutional Convention, landed the permanent State Capitol, and elected the State's first governor. Sacramento’s influence was in large part due to its growth in commerce, particularly that portion related to transportation such as railroads and steamboats, as well as wholesale merchants who supplied retailers throughout California and Nevada. Those large-scale merchants of Sacramento saw their success tied to better wagon roads and railroads.
6 Great wealth was to be gained by a wagon toll road over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Virginia City and even greater fortunes in a transcontinental railroad. The railroad would offer enormous opportunities for California and the Sacramento region to grow. The potential bounty of Sacramento Valley agriculture was to be realized with faster and more efficient transportation. Sacramento merchants would organize and build the western half of that railroad.
7 In the 1890s the first commercial automobiles began to arrive in Sacramento. By 1905, twenty-seven automobiles were registered in Sacramento County. By 1910, seven hundred more were registered, and by July 1911, in what can only be called “Auto Frenzy," Sacramentans were buying seventy-five autos per day. Automobiles alone could not make a significant difference. A network of paved roads was essential. Three bridges had to cross the American River between Sacramento and Fair Oaks. Perhaps the best symbol of this growing network would be the completion of the Yolo Causeway in 1916.
8 For the Sacramento Valley, airplanes and other airships including balloons were a novelty until 1917. With the nation gearing up for W.W.I, the Government awarded a $3,000,000 contract to build ''IN-4'' (Jenny) bi-wing military airplanes in North Sacramento. For the rest of that Century, Sacramento would look to aviation as a vital source of economic sustenance.
9 As urban areas developed, streetcar systems evolved, first pulled by horses and later using electricity. For those in urban areas, it was the first experience at the freedom of cheap efficient public transportation. Urban transportation led to interurban systems that would ultimately evolve into an electric passenger railroad system, linking the Bay area with Sacramento and smaller Valley communities all the way to Chico.
10 The development of the Sacramento region is so intertwined with transportation that the region's history would be incomplete without serious attention given to the impact of wagon trains, steamboats, railroads, and automobiles.
Which ideas are supported by details or evidence from this passage?
Responses
A Sacramento is currently one of the most prosperous areas of California.Sacramento is currently one of the most prosperous areas of California.
B The Californian coast has an amazing wealth of natural sites and resources.The Californian coast has an amazing wealth of natural sites and resources.
C Transportation in the Sacramento Valley underwent an evolution from necessity.Transportation in the Sacramento Valley underwent an evolution from necessity.
D The valley's climate necessitated transportation that could withstand inclement weather.