The Railroad Arrives in Yuma

In the spring of 1877 the Southern Pacific Railroad was building east on the first transcontinental line through Arizona. After getting permission from the federal government they spent the summer building a bridge across the Colorado River. Ironically, when they started to lay the track across the bridge another branch of the government wouldn’t allow them to cross a federal stream. At the time there were only five soldiers manning Fort Yuma, the commanding officer, Major Thomas Dunn, a docto