Atlantic and Pacific Railroad

Atlantic and Pacific Railroad

Map of the railroad in 1883
Locale	Missouri to Oklahoma; New Mexico to California
Dates of operation	1867–1897
Successor	Frisco; Santa Fe
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was a U.S. railroad that owned or operated two disjointed segments, one connecting St. Louis, Missouri with Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other connecting Albuquerque, New Mexico with Southern California. It was incorporated by the U.S. Congress in 1866 as a transcontinental railroad connecting Springfield, Missouri and Van Buren, Arkansas with California. The central portion was never constructed, and the two halves later became parts of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway systems, now both merged into the BNSF Railway.

The A&P's earliest predecessor was the Pacific Railroad, incorporated by the Missouri General Assembly in 1849 to connect St. Louis and a point south of Kansas City across the center of the state. In response to an 1852 federal law granting public lands to Missouri to aid in constructing two cross-state railroads, the state approved an amendment to the 1849 Pacific Railroad law in December 1852, adding a Southwest Branch that would receive the grants. The new branch, defined by state law to lie south of the Osage River, began at Franklin, Missouri,(now Pacific) on the main line and headed west-southwesterly across the state. Construction on 71 miles (114 km) from Franklin to Dillon was completed in 1860, and a further 6 miles (9.7 km) to Rolla were opened in 1861. The company graded 12 miles (19 km) more to Arlington, but after it defaulted on bonds that had been issued for the branch, the state seized the road from Franklin to Rolla and incomplete roadbed to Arlington in March 1866. The property was sold in June for $1.3 million to explorer and politician John C. Frémont, who reorganized it as the Southwest Pacific Railroad in September. (The main line of the Pacific Railroad was not sold, and would later become the Missouri Pacific Railroad.)