San Francisco and San Jose Railroad
Locomotive #11 of the SFSJ.
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| Locale | San Francisco Peninsula |
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| Dates of operation | 1863–1870 |
| Successor | Southern Pacific |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad (SF&SJ) was the first railroad to link the communities of San Francisco and San Jose, California, running the length of the San Francisco Peninsula. The company incorporated in 1860 and opened the first portion of its route in 1863, completing the entire 49.5-mile (80 km) route in 1864. The company was consolidated with the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1870. Today, Caltrain and the Union Pacific Railroad continue to operate trains over the company's original route.
A railroad between San Francisco and San Jose was planned as early as 1849–50, leading to the creation of The Pacific and Atlantic Railroad Company (P&A) on September 6, 1851. The route was surveyed and published by the end of 1851, but the P&A was unable to raise funds locally; when the P&A turned to banking houses in New York and England, they were told that no funds could be disbursed without first obtaining local capital. The company reorganized on October 29, 1853, just before the expiration of the construction permit, and US$2,000,000 (equivalent to $58,830,000 in 2017) of stock was drawn up for sale, but an untimely downturn in the economy meant no investors were forthcoming.
Public sentiment again turned to the idea of constructing a railroad in 1857–58 and a new San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Company was incorporated in late 1859 with the idea to raise public funds by putting a referendum to the voters of the three counties served (San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara) asking them to purchase a total of US$900,000 (equivalent to $24,510,000 in 2017) in stock of the new company. This was portrayed in the news as "an attempted fraud upon the tax-payers of the counties" and the company dissolved in June 1860. A new SF&SJ incorporated on August 18, 1860 with San Francisco industrialist Peter Donahue stepping in as treasurer, choosing his friends Judge Timothy Dame as president and Henry Newhall, a successful San Francisco auctioneer, as vice-president, and placing the company headquarters in San Francisco. Donahue, Dame and Newhall are thus credited as the three co-founders of the line.
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