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Theodore Judah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Theodore Judah (March 4, 1826 - November 2, 1863) was an American engineer who dreamed of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Judah studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after his family moved to Troy, New York.

Theodore Judah was known as "Crazy Judah" because of his single-minded passion for driving a railroad through the wall of mountains known as the Sierra Nevada. As the chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad, he surveyed the route over the Sierra Nevadas along which the railroad was eventually built during the 1860's.

Theodore died of Yellow Fever (Panama Fever, as it was also known). He caught the disease while taking a boat trip with his wife back to New York City during his land crossing of the Isthmus of Panama. He was going to New York in an effort to find alternative financing to buy out The Big Four investors. He was having difficulty with the existing investors as he was more inclined to strive for quality development whereas, the investors were more interested in speedy development.

The CP named one of its steam locomotives after Judah, and a memorial plaque dedicated to him currently stands in Folsom, California. Ironically, the 19 ton locomotive, already bearing his name, crossed paths with Judah on his fateful trip to New York.

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References

Ambrose, Stephen E. (2000). Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84609-8.
White, John H., Jr., (Spring 1986), America's most noteworthy railroaders, Railroad History, The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, 154, p. 9-15.

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