SAN DIEGO & ARIZONA RAILWAY 1920s PROMOTIONAL FILM CARRIZO GORGE TO TECATE VALLEY, MEXICO XD65554

Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @periscopefilm
Want to learn more about Periscope Film and get access to exclusive swag? Join us on Patreon. Visit / periscopefilm
Visit our website www.PeriscopeFilm.com
This silent promotional film for the San Diego & Arizona Railway (also known as the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway Company) was founded in the 1906. The film was preserved thanks to the efforts of railroad enthusiast Jack White. The SD&A railroad was the first modern line between San Diego and the East, and one of the most expensive ever built in the U.S., costing almost $19 million in 1919 ($325m in today's dollars). Built by sugar magnate John D. Spreckles, the right-of-way rises over 3700 feet from San Diego to El Centro, and in the Carrizo Gorge (spelled "Carriso Gorge in the film at :44) crosses 14 trestles and goes through 21 tunnels in the space of only 11 miles. At (8:22) the "international tunnel" is shown, as the train crosses from the USA into Mexico on the way to the Tecate Valley. At (8:58) a train is shown arriving in Tijuana, Mexico, and at San Diego at (10:20). At (11:08) the famed Hotel del Coronado is shown on Coronado Island. At (11:42) the U.S. Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton is shown as well as Balboa Park (12:07).
The SD&A was dubbed "The Impossible Railroad" by many engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved, the line was established in part to provide San Diego with a direct rail link to the east by connecting with the Southern Pacific Railroad lines in El Centro, California. In 1932, financial problems forced Spreckels' heirs to transfer their share of SD&A ownership to the Southern Pacific The passenger line operated until the 1950s, and the right of way remained in use up until the 1980s when portions fell into disrepair. In 2001, the Carrizo Gorge Railway (CZRY) was created to provide freight service (primarily sand hauling) along the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway line between Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, and Plaster City, California, United States. CZRY no longer operates, but the right of way remains valuable and may be utilized by the San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad or the Baja California Railroad.
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference."
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com

[@tylerzorn6152]

Jack White was a news commentator on 10 News in San Diego and most of the railroad now is out of service or tore up or closed.

[@StillPlaysWithModelTrains1956]

Wow, thanks for posting!

[@PeriscopeFilm]

You bet! Glad you enjoyed it and appreciate it. Take a deep dive on our submarine of filmic preservation at Patreon.com/Periscopefilm

[@maxcleveland3446]

Huell Howser has been there too. Golly!

[@MCW1955]

That was a great episode! It’s really gone downhill since that filming.

[@mattmarzula]

Two days ago I had seen a video of man traveling 19 miles on a homemade motorized cart on section of this railway that is all but abandoned.

[@jaminova_1969]

John D. Spreckles, the sugar magnate and owner of the Hotel Del Coronado, financed the completion of the SD&A RR, among many other projects!

[@albertcarello619]

This Rail Road is now the Sam Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad.

[@Martin_Adams184]

What a fascinating film! There are many films of this railway posted here; but this is the only one I'm aware of to show a full-length passenger train hauled by steam. It's also the only one I'm aware of to show the line before the construction of Goat Canyon Trestle, which happened in 1933 following the collapse of a tunnel. There are other diversions built since this film was made; but I cannot spot where any of them, including the trestle, are. If anyone knows better than I in that respect, it would be great to hear where in the film such diversions now are. Thank you - both for the uploading and for the preservation of this film.

[@PeriscopeFilm]

Thanks for your comment, glad you appreciate this film! To see what we do and support further efforts visit Patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm

[@leomaranton]

Such a spectacular railway stands abandoned instead of being used for touristic purposes! Too bad the work invested in its construction with so many sacrifices!

[@wtxrailfan]

Thanks for the video. This rail line was precarious from the day it was built. There's been several attempts to revive it over the years that never succeeded. The geology is horrible crumbly rock. Lots of rock slide areas. I laughed at the part that said glaciers stacked those rocks. Glaciers never made it that far south, but maybe they didn't know that back in the 1920s.

[@mattmarzula]

Well, you're wrong. I suppose if you isolate the idea of glaciers being miles thick ice sheets covering the higher latitudes of the North American land mass during the last ice age and the Last Glacial Maximum then yes. Those glaciers did not extend that far south. However, of you widen your gaze and accept that glaciers can occur within mountain ranges during long periods of global cooling, you'd understand that there was in fact glacial activity in the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona. There was even a shallow sea. There was even an ice sheet defined as a glacier in 2008 in Texas. So is it so hard to understand that glacial melts and global floodings between ice ages could cause such events? Especially when experts in geology are stating it in a preserved documentary film regardless of when it was made. 1920 was only 123 years ago. Geology was an advanced science that was 1400 years old by then.

[@wtxrailfan]

@@mattmarzula Dude, nothing you said has anything to do with the Jacumba Mountains area where this was filmed. Lots of things geologists believed 123 years ago have since been proven wrong.

[@firemedic6509]

I flew low level through Carrizo gorge many times in a Navy helicopter 1999-2006.

[@J_Calvin_Hobbes]

👍

[@BrEaKiNg_Brad]

Look how slow tha thting is going. And there is like no air conditioning going through hot Arizona. Wow people were a different kind of tough back then.

[@lwilton]

The Carrizo George is in California, and most of this part of the railroad was about 3/4 of a mile above sea level, so it isn't as bad as Southern Arizona. In fact in winter it can snow. Also, while they proudly stated that "the roadbed is as wide as a city street", and that was in some cases true, it was in general a turning, twisting stretch of track, and anything over about 10 or 20 MPH would have been suicidal. Likely the train ran between 40 and 60 MPH in the lowlands. Also, the windows on railroad cars opened in those days, so everyone would have had the windows open if there wasn't too much dust, dirt, and coal embers blowing in the wind.

[@-oiiio-3993]

Automobiles also had no 'air conditioning' then, nor did homes. Air Conditioning at that time and place was a luxury enjoyed almost exclusively in hotels and theaters.

[@mattmarzula]

I refuse to use AC to this day. It makes you weak and unable to acclimate. It's also unnecessary.

[@danielmaxwell9338]

You wouldn't say that in El Centro or Yuma when it is 115

[@jaminova_1969]

Granted, I'm spoiled but when we were young, we drove or rode around in hotrods with no AC. As long as you are moving, it's fine. Now I have been in Yuma when it was 110 at 10pm and wondered how people actually live there! In CA, it is possible to not need AC if you drive to work in the AM and leave after Sunset!

[@CrookedSkew]

The music ruins this film.

[@lwilton]

There is a mute button on the interface.

[@CrookedSkew]

​@@lwilton You know, I actually forgot about that. Thanks.

[@OKFrax-ys2op]

Otherwise it would be totally quiet dude, turn off your volume

[@mattmarzula]

@@CrookedSkew idiot...

[@jaminova_1969]

Actually, it is period appropriate for a silent film of this era!