The Railroad and the Tehachapi Loop

The Railroad and the Tehachapi Loop. Establishment of Tehachapi – 1876. The Tehachapi Pass played an important part in the race to build the first transcontinental railroad. In the south, construction was stopped at Caliente by what appeared as an insurmountable barrier, allowing the northern route through Donner Pass to be completed first. Eventually, William Hood, construction engineer, went to the summit of Tehachapi Pass where he looked down and studied the contours and grades of the mountain. To enable steam engines to climb over the steep pass at the entrance to the canyon, he designed a loop to allow the train to climb by crossing over itself while keeping the grade at 2.2 percent., Trains still pass through a series of tunnels on the way through the Tehachapi Loop and circle the knoll in the center, on one of the busiest freight routes in the country., In 1876, when railroad tracks reached the site of the present Tehachapi Depot, a telegraph office was the first structure on the empty plain, four miles east of Tehichipa and one mile east of Greenwich. The new railroad town was given the name Tehachapi Summit. By July 1877 four trains came through Tehachapi daily, two for passengers., In 1876, the population and early businesses developed along both sides of the tracks. People literally started to move buildings and houses from old Tehichipa and Greenwich to the new railroad town of Tehachapi Summit. The Erra House Museum at 311 S. Green Street is an example of one of these moved houses. By 1893, a two-story building north of the tracks housed a drug store downstairs and offered space upstairs to lodges such as the Odd Fellows and the Masons. Also on this street were the Franco-American Hotel and Bar and a handball court., By 1885 Southern Pacific had mapped the town; east/west streets had alpha names with the north/south having places names. By this time there were hotels, saloons, a post office and stores.