Texas Gets Connected (CEC)

Gentry, A. M. [n.p.], 1860.

Map of Texas, showing the line of the Texas and New Orleans Rail Road, and its connections in the U.S. and adjacent territories.

Capitalists in Texas had big plans to connect the state to New Orleans, the most important city in the south in terms of developing the potential for the Lone Star State. The money was there, the connections to the rest of the country, and even the world, was there. The only thing lacking was a railroad. Tracks already reached through the tangled swamps of southern Louisiana as far as Brashear City, present-day Morgan City. From there, laborers raised a berm as far as New Iberia, where the road would turn west, following the old Atoscosito Road to Lake Charles, Beaumont, Harrisburg, and Houston.

Once this link became a reality, Texans planned on pushing on the to the west, eventually completing a trans-continental railroad to California. Click the image for a closer look.