This website is no longer updated and has been replaced with a static copy. The Spatial History Project was active at Stanford University from 2007-2022, engaging in dozens of collaborative projects led by faculty, staff, graduate students, post-docs, visiting scholars and others at Stanford and beyond. More than 150 undergraduate students from more than a dozen disciplines contributed to these projects. In addition to a robust intellectual exchange built through these partnerships, research outputs included major monographs, edited volumes, journal articles, museum exhibitions, digital articles, robust websites, and dozens of lightweight interactive visualizations, mostly developed with Adobe Flash (now defunct). While most of those publications live on in other forms, the content exclusive to this website is preserved in good faith through this static version of the site. Flash-based content is partially available in emulated form using the Ruffle emulator.
The Expansion of the Western Railroad
WARNING: These maps have been removed.
Authors: Toral Patel and Richard White
These three snapshots of the Western United States in 1879, 1885 and 1893 show the growth of railroads across the American West.
Please note that the extent of rail line between El Paso and San Antonio in the 1885 and 1893 maps was originally mislabeled as Texas & Pacific. This line was actually the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio in 1885 and Southern Pacific by 1893. The line north, between El Paso and Dallas, was part of the Texas & Pacific.
RELATED VISUALIZATIONS:
Seeing Space in Terms of Track Length and Cost of Shipping
The Rise in the American Railway Union, 1893-1894
Population Density in the United States from 1790 to 2000
Union Pacific Shipping from Nebraska: Forwarded/Received
Exports from Colorado by Station in 1885
California Railroad Commission,
Station Construction Data, 1850-1900
Station Construction Data, 1850-1900
Union Pacific Shipping from Nebraska: East/West
Western Railroads and Eastern Capital: Regional Networks on Railroad Boards of Directors, 1872-1894
Tracing Railroad Directors, 1872-1894
Patterns of Change in Railroad Company Board Members, 1872-1894
Cattle Production in the American West, 1867-1935
Railroad Repeats: The Alfred A. Hart Photo Project
Per Capita Income in the United States: 1880-1910
The Central Pacific and Transcontinental Eleven Step:
How to Run a Transcontinental Railroad
How to Run a Transcontinental Railroad