Central Pacific Railroad

November 3, 1863
New York

Flash News!

Leland Stanford, President, Central Pacific Railroad:

I just received news that Theodore Judah passed away. It seems he was in such a hurry to reach the East Coast that he took a short cut here.  Judah traveled across the Isthmus of Panama instead of going around Cape Horn. (An isthmus is a narrow strip of land between two large bodies of water.)  In the jungles of Panama he caught typhoid fever.  He died yesterday here in New York.  We can now continue building the Central Pacific without Judah's interference.  Tell Charlie Crocker to keep laying track.