"Discussions of a railroad from San Francisco to San Jose were under serious discussion as early as 1851, with William J. Lewis serving as Civil Engineer. As noted in the History of Santa Clara County: The calculations for the building of a railroad between San Francisco and San Jose were, at the time, based upon the amount paid out over the route for transportation and freight. It was estimated that for the seven months ending January 31, 1851, there had journeyed between the two points ten thousand five hundred passengers, who had expended the sum of one hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars,...By the month of July, fifty thousand dollars had been subscribed; in December the road had been surveyed, and a report made by the civil engineer, William J. Lewis, that was published December 26,1851...Railroad passenger service between San Jose and San Francisco would not begin until October 1863, with the opening of the San Francisco & San Jose Railroad. While a number of railroads were organized in California in the first half of the 1850s, no railroad would commence operation until 1855, when the Sacramento Valley Railroad began its earliest service.” raremaps.com
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