The tortuous history of the first railroad in Mexico.

Brief history of the railroad in Mexico.

(si prefieres leer este articulo en español haz click aqui: http://ingjoseguerrero.blogspot.mx/2013/09/la-tortuosa-historia-de-la-primer-via.html)

PART 1: The tortuous history of the first railroad in Mexico, now called line "S", which covers the route Mexico - Veracruz:

1837: The president Anastasio Bustamante awarded to the merchant (and ex - Minister) Francisco de Arrillaga the construction of the railroad from Veracruz to Mexico City. The first French invasion of Mexico delayed the start of the work.

1840: Francisco de Arrillaga dies and, for this reason, the railway cannot be built.

 1842: President Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana requires, to the construction company that was building the road Perote - Veracruz, the construction of a railway from Veracruz to Rio San Juan, Ver. (with a length of 23 Kms).

 1848: The construction of the railway, whose implementation was very slow, was interrupted by the invasion that Mexico receives from the United States of America.

 1850, September 16: José Joaquín de Herrera, as Mexico president, inaugurated the railroad Veracruz to Rio San Juan, when it only had 13.6 kilometers built.

 1853: Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana takes the presidence of Mexico one more time and delivers the railroad concession to the british John Laurie Rickards. Due to almost zero progress of the work the concession is canceled in 1855.

 1855: Santa Ana delivers the concesion of building a railroad from the already section opened to Acapulco, via Mexico City, to the Masso siblings.

 1856: Ignacio Comonfort takes Mexico Presidence and begins the construction from Mexico to Veracruz, with plans to have secondary railroads to Puebla and the plains of Apam. In October this year, the Masso siblings sold the concession to Manuel and Antonio Escandon, the both were entrepreneurs from Córdoba, Veracruz. The railroad project to reach Acapulco is forgotten.

 1857: Opening of the section between Mexico City and Villa de Guadalupe.

 1861: Benito Juarez is now president of Mexico and resumed the plan of a railway to Acapulco (now called the project Veracruz - Pacific). In this same year the build of the railroad from Veracruz to Mexico is continued.

 1862: While the French invasion, the second one, most of the Veracruz railroads were destroyed; given this scenario the Escandon brothers made a pact with the French army and the Emperor Maximilian: the restoration of rail service from Veracruz to Soledad, Ver. In August of that year marks the task.

 1864: In this year the railway reached Camaron Station, Veracruz.

 1866: The railroad reaches Paso del Macho station, Veracruz, taking a total of 76 kilometers. Also in this year, the Escandon brothers sold their railroad company to the Imperial Mexican Railway Company.

 1867: After the ending of Second Empire and the return of Benito Juarez to the presidency of Mexico, due the priority of the railroad project, the Escandon brothers were forgiven for his involvement with the Empire and returns them to concession the railway, now called Mexico - Veracruz. They continue to work from the basis of Villa de Guadalupe, the one that had been finished in 1857.

 1869, September 16: President Benito Juárez made ​​the maiden voyage of stretch Mexico - Apizaco (Tlaxcala) (139 km) and the branch Apizaco - Puebla (47 kilometers).

 1870: With a strong injection of human, economic and political resorces worked hard between the end points of Paso del Macho, Veracruz and Apizaco, Tlaxcala.

 1872: It manages to overcome the obstacle of the "Canyon Metlac" Veracruz, at this time were completed the section from VeraCruz to Orizaba.

 1872, December 20: Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada is now president of Mexico, and bind both ends of the railroad in Maltrata Summits.

 1873, January 1: President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada opened the entire Mexico - Veracruz railway, with a total of 423.75 kilometers and took the name of Ferrocarril Mexicano.

And so, after 36 years during which there were civil wars, foreign invasions, Mexican empire and countless political and social events, we could count on the first railway line in Mexico.


Below I share a map of the Mexican Railroad at that time:

(Click to enlarge)