Historic Laredo

TRANSPORTATION
TEX MEX RAILWAY
An effort to bring rail service to Laredo, chartered at first in 1856 and then again in 1866 and
once more in 1873 and finally in 1875, came to fruition at last under the leadership of banker, hide
trader, and insurance agent Uriah Lott, the man who would begin to build the narrow gauge Corpus
Christi and Río Grande Railroad.
Investors in the railroad included Richard King and Miflin Kenedy, Laredoans Meyer M. Levy, C.M.
McDonnell, and Henry Goldschmidt, and the Philadelphia steel makers Andrew J. And James J. Dull.
Construction of the undercapitalized railroad, which started off with only $39,000 in cash and
$161,000 in promissory notes, moved only as quickly as Lott could collect from subscribers. The first
spike was driven on November 26, 1876. In early 1877, 25 miles of track had been laid from Corpus
Christi to Banquete. By 1879, the tracks had reached San Diego and Lott continued construction into
the brush, stopping in hopes that Laredo would offer a bonus to bring the railroad to the city.
In 1881, Laredoans held three offers for railroad service. Besides Lott, offers came from Jay Gould’s
International & Great Northern (IGN) and Mexico’s Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico, which was
managed by the Palmer-Sullivan Syndicate of Colorado Springs.
In need of a point of entry into Mexico that was not controlled by rival railroader Jay Gould, Gen.
William Jackson Palmer offered to buy the yet-to-be-completed Corpus Christi and Río Grande
Railroad from Kenedy and Lott who agreed to sell for a figure somewhere between $1 million and $5
million. The Texas Legislature granted a charter with the name of the Texas-Mexican Railway
Company on June 30, 1881.
Even before a charter was secured, Col. W.W. Hungerford began grading roadway on both ends of
the 102-mile stretch between San Diego and Laredo. On July 10, 1881 service was opened between
Corpus Christi and Aguilares. While Laredo waited for completion of the remaining miles to the city
from Aguilares, the company built a machine shop in the Heights, a warehouse, freight depot, and
passenger depot. The City of Laredo built bridges across Zacate and Chacon creeks. A permanent railroad
bridge was built across the Río Grande in 1883, replacing an earlier temporary bridge. On
September 10, 1881, the rails crossed into the Laredo city limits.
❖
The Texas-Mexican Railway Depot at
Benavides, Texas as seen in a
photograph taken in May 1931.
COURTESY OF TEXAS MEXICAN RAILWAY
Chapter IV ✦ 33