The Central Pacific began laying track eastward from Sacramento, California, in 1863, and the Union Pacific started westward from Omaha, Nebraska, two years later.
As the Central Pacific began at Sacramento and built eastward, all supplies other than those obtained from California or from along the road had to be brought from the eastern states.
The usual route from Atlantic ports was around Cape Horn, a distance of 18,000 miles, which took a sailing ship some four months in passage. Some freight, mainly locomotives and rail, was sent across the Isthmus of Panama, but this route, while shorter in distance and time, was extremely costly, owing to high freight rates.
Mr. Clement stated that shipping rail by way of the Isthmus in 1868 cost $51.97 per ton, making the cost of rail delivered at Sacramento $143.67, which did not include transfer charges to lighters at San Francisco or transportation up the Sacramento River. The corresponding Isthmus freight on one locomotive was $8,100, and the average freight cost for eighteen locomotives was $4,692.50 each. Freight charges on the first locomotive sent by way of Cape Horn was $2,282.25. Much of the high freight cost was due to high war-risk insurance during the period of the Civil War.
When material reached San Francisco, it was loaded on river steamers or barges and carried up San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River, 130 miles to Sacramento. In flood seasons the river furnished a reliable means of transportation, but at low water, even with the help of the tides, the passage was difficult. Thus all equipment for building and operating the Central Pacific had to be shipped from eastern mills to Atlantic ports, loaded on vessels, taken on a long sea voyage by way of Cape Horn, or across the Isthmus, to San Francisco, there to be transferred again to river craft and by way of the bay and river carried to its destination. There it was again loaded on cars and forwarded to the place of use at the end of track.
