San Diego & Arizona

Company History: The company was chartered on December 14, 1906, and groundbreaking ceremonies held at the intersection of San Diego's Main and 26th Streets on September 7, 1907. Construction delays, attacks by Mexican revolutionaries, and government intervention during World War I all served to push the construction completion to November 15, 1919 when the "golden spike" was finally driven by John Spreckels. The first through SD&A passenger train left Campo on the morning of November 30, and made the full run from El Centro to San Diego's downtown Union Station for the official opening of the line on December 1, 1919. The total construction cost of the 146.4 miles (235.6 km) of track laid was approximately $18 million, or some $123,000 per mile; the original estimate was $6 million. The 11-mile (18 km) long segment through Carrizo Gorge (which included 13,385 feet (4,080 m) of tunnels, 17 in all) alone cost over $4 million to construct; the three miles (5 km) of tunnels (21 total) along the entire line ran another $1.8 million. Almost 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of bridges and trestles were built as well. The tracks departed downtown San Diego south where they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at San Ysidro. From there the line traversed eastward through Tijuana, then headed northeast through Tecate and back over the border to the town of Campo. To construct and maintain the 44-mile (72 kilometer) stretch through Mexico the SD&A formed the Ferrocarril Tijuana y Tecate, S.A. de C.V., at the behest of the Mexican government. East of Campo the road traveled through Clover Flats, across the Coast Range (elevation 3,660 feet), then descended through the breathtaking but treacherous Carrizo Gorge, the builders' most significant obstacle.Though the SD&A line ended in Seeley, trackage rights gave the railroad the ability to run trains as far east as El Centro and as far south as Calexico. Branch lines ran from downtown to as far north and east as the community of Lakeside, with a separate line which circumvented San Diego Bay to service Coronado Heights, Coronado, and North Island.From Wikipedia

Successor/Parent History: The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway Company (reporting mark SDAE) is a short-line American railroad founded in 1906 as the San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A) by sugar magnate, developer, and entrepreneur John D. Spreckels. Dubbed "The Impossible Railroad" by many engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved, the line was established in part to provide San Diego with a direct rail link to the east by connecting with the Southern Pacific Railroad lines in El Centro, California. The SD&A's 146.4-mile (235.61 km) route originates in San Diego, California and terminates in El Centro, California.From Wikipedia

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.