Texas Railroad
Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, & Colorado Railway
In 1840 there were still no commercial railroads west of the Mississippi and only one operating in the South (in Charleston, South Carolina).
Texans quickly grasped the possibilities railroads offered to the frontier. To entice investment, individual cities and counties issued bonds to aid railroad construction, and the state offered loans and land grants. Texas optimistically chartered its first railroad shortly after winning independence in 1836, and construction began in the 1840s. The realities of the marketplace made failures of these early efforts.
