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All The Way To The Bay -- The Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad -- Possibly The Earliest Surviving Timetable For The Completed Route to SF Bay

Extremely rare promotional map and time table for the "Great Overland All Rail Route" to the Pacific Coast," issued "To Take Effect Monday October 18th, 1869."

Likely published in September or early October of 1869, this remarkable artifact is perhaps the earliest surviving timetable and promotional map showing transit details for the Transcontinental Railroad all the way through to San Francisco, a service which did not become available until some months after the Golden Spike.  The final terminus at Oakland's Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay, was not completed until November 8, 1869.

In addition to its importance as perhaps the earliest surviving map and timetable of its kind, the timetable is richly filled with data, including passenger fares (first and second class and sleeping coaches), baggage limits (first 100 lbs per adult, 50 lbs per child were free, $15.00 per hundred pounds thereafter), freight tariffs (three classes, plus livestock rates per car ("to  be fed, watered and taken care of by the owner"), and stage connections.

Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad To San Francisco Bay

On May 10, 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad was inaugurated with the ceremonial gold "Last Spike" by CPRR President Leland Stanford at Promontory Summit, Utah. This event signaled the opening for through traffic between Sacramento and Omaha. Over the next six months, the railroad extended its reach, completing the leg from Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay.  By September 6, 1869, the first transcontinental rail passengers reached the Pacific Railroad's initial western end at the Alameda Terminal. From there, they were ferried across the Bay to San Francisco on the steamer Alameda. In November of the same year, the railroad's terminus was relocated to the Oakland Long Wharf, specifically on November 8, 1869, offering a more streamlined connection. 

The map identifies the dozens of stops along the route between Omaha and Sacramento, before traversing the final leg to San Francisco Bay.  It appears that in addition to the Ferry option between Oakland and San Francisco, it was also possible to go entirely by rail via San Jose.

While this map bears a similarity to the Central Pacific's advertising maps which were first issued by H.S. Crocker & Co. in Sacramento in 1871 with pictorial vignettes above and below, this is a completely different map, likely the inspiration for the later pictorial map.

Rarity

The timetable and map are of the utmost rarity. 

We locate only 2 other 1869 examples and 2 1870 examples.

We locate the following examples in OCLC and through other internet databases:

• October 18, 1869:  Yale - Beinecke Library
• 1869 (no date listed):  Bancroft Library
• May 1870:  Center for Sacramento History  (additional railroad lines extending south to from Stockton and North tow Chico, CA)
• 1870 (no date listed):  Harvard Library