The Railroad

In the 1850s the United States Government launched a series of explorations across the American West to discover suitable routes for cross-continent railroads.

The Southern Pacific survey led by Lt. Amiel Weeks followed the 35th parallel from Oklahoma to California passing through a portion of what is now Petrified Forest National Park.

This route was later constructed in the early 1880s by the Atlantic-Pacific Railroad, later the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, and currently the BNSF Railroad, which still operates the line today.

The tracks cross the main park road north of the Rio Puerco (an overpass was constructed in 1933-34) and just east of the town of Adamana.

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