Editing Theodore Judah (section)

===Pacific railroad surveys===
In January 1857 in Washington DC, Judah published "A practical plan for building The Pacific Railroad", in which he outlined the general plan and argued for the need to do a detailed survey of a specific selected route for the railroad, not [[Pacific Railroad Surveys|a general reconnaissance of several possible routes that had been done earlier]].<ref name="judah1857">{{cite web |last1=Judah |first1=T. D. |title=A practical plan for building The Pacific Railroad |url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist4/practical.html |website=Virtual museum of the City of San Francisco |publisher=H. Porkinhorn, Washington DC |access-date=21 October 2019 |date=1 January 1857}}</ref>

Nominated in the 1859 California Pacific Railroad Convention in San Francisco, Judah was sent to Washington DC to lobby in general for the [[First transcontinental railroad|Pacific Railroad]].  Congress was distracted by the trouble of pre-Civil War America and showed little interest.  He returned noting that he had to find a specific practical route and some private financial backing to do a detailed engineering survey.<ref name="RogersSpinks2019">{{cite web |last1=Rogers |first1=J. David |last2=Spinks |first2=Charles R. |title=Theodore Judah and the blazing of the first transcontinental railroad over the Sierra Nevada |url=https://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/american&military_history/THEODORE%20JUDAH%20AND%20THE%20BLAZING%20OF%20THE%20FIRST%20TRANSCONTINENTAL%20RAILROAd-Sierra%20Nevada-Rogers.pdf |website=mst.edu |publisher=ASCE Golden Spike 150th Anniversary History Symposium |access-date=21 October 2019 |location=Sacramento, CA |date=May 6, 2019}}</ref>

In the fall of 1860, [[Charles Marsh (railroad builder)|Charles Marsh]], surveyor, civil engineer and water company owner, met with Judah, who had recently built the [[Sacramento Valley Railroad (1852-1877)|Sacramento Valley Railroad]] from Sacramento to Folsom, California.  Marsh, who had already surveyed a potential railroad route between Sacramento and Nevada City, California, a decade earlier, went with Judah into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  There they examined the Henness Pass Turnpike Company’s route (Marsh was a founding director of that company).  They measured elevations and distances, and discussed the possibility of a transcontinental railroad.  Both were convinced that it could be done.<ref>Lindars, Dom.  Manuscript, ''The Ditches of Nevada City,'' Chapter 24, Stories of Fire and Ice, anticipated publication date: Spring 2023.</ref><ref>“Railroad Route Discovered,” ''The Nevada Journal,'' November 9, 1860, p. 2, Nevada City, California.</ref><ref>Gorman, Richard.  “An Early Nevada City Odd Fellow,” October, 2017.  https://www.nevadacityoddfellows.com/history/charlesmarsh/.  Retrieved September 13, 2022.</ref><ref>Comstock, David Allan.  "Charles Marsh: Our Neglected Pioneer-Genius," ''Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin,'' pp. 9-11, 14-15, Volume 50, No. 2, April 1996, and papers compiled by David Comstock, Searls Historical Library, Nevada City, California.</ref><ref>“Henness Pass Turnpike Co.,” ''Daily National Democrat,'' p. 3, March 22, 1860, Marysville, California.</ref><ref>“Another Pioneer Gone,” ''San Francisco Chronicle,'' p. 3, April 29, 1876, San Francisco, California.</ref><ref>King, R. Joe.  “Nevada Survey Maps,” Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum website.  http://cprr.org/Museum/Maps/Nevada_Survey_Maps/.  Retrieved September 13, 2022.</ref><ref>Wheat, Carl I.  “A Sketch of the Life of Theodore D. Judah,” ''California Historical Society Quarterly,'' p. 250, Volume IV, No. 3, September 1925.</ref>

In November 1860, Judah published "Central Pacific Railroad to California", in which he declared "the discovery of a practicable route from the city of Sacramento upon the divide between Bear River and the North Fork of the American, via Illinoistown (near Colfax), Dutch Flat, and Summit Valley (Donner Pass) to the Truckee River".  He advocated the chosen Dutch Flat-Donner Pass route as the most practical one with maximum grades of one hundred feet per mile and 150 miles shorter than the route recommended in the government's reports.  Much of the Sierra Nevada where the practical routes were located was double-ridged, meaning two summits separated by a valley, Donner Pass was not and thus was more suitable for a railroad.  From Dutch Flat, the Pacific road would climb steadily up the ridge between the North Fork American and Bear Rivers to the Pass before winding down steadily following the Truckee River out of the mountains into the Great Basin of Nevada.  In December 1860 or early January 1861, Marsh met with Theodore Judah and Dr. Daniel Strong in Strong’s drug store in [[Dutch Flat, California]], to discuss the project, which they called the Central Pacific Railroad of California.<ref name="galloway1941">{{cite journal |last1=Galloway |first1=John Debo |title=Theodore Dehone Judah--Railroad Pioneer |journal=Civil Engineering |date=1941 |volume=11 |issue=10 (Nov) and 11 (Dec) |url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway_Judah_ASCE/index.html |access-date=21 October 2019}}</ref><ref name="RogersSpinks2019" />

Judah's youthful interest in the general subject of a Pacific Railroad developed during this period into almost an obsession, his wife observing that...
:"Everything he did from the time he went to California to the day of his death was for the great continental Pacific railway. Time, money, brains, strength, body, and soul were absorbed. It was the burden of his thought day and night, largely of his conversation, till it used to be said 'Judah's Pacific Railroad crazy,' and I would say, 'Theodore, those people don't care,' or 'you give your thunder away.' He'd laugh and say, 'But we must keep the ball rolling."<ref>Wheat, Carl I. “A Sketch of the Life of Theodore D. Judah.” California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 1925, pp. 219–271. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25177767. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020. page 227</ref> ''Wheat, A Sketch of the Life of Theodore D. Judah (1925)''