The Colorado Central Railroad operated in Colorado and southeastern Wyoming in the late 19th century. The railroad was used to ship gold from the mountain during the Colorado Gold Rush. Many of these railroad tracks still exist in Colorado today and are used for tourist attractions.
The railroad was expanded from its initial Golden-Denver line to link Colorado with the transcontinental railroad, which would also bring passengers in from other parts of the country. In the early 1900s , Colorado started expanding its freight and passenger train lines into Southern Colorado. Land and railroad deals were made with Union Pacific to extend railway lines into southern Colorado and New Mexico. Denver, Pueblo and Leadville, Colorado, are hubs or midpoints for trains hauling freight between the western and eastern United States.
From the 1940s through the early 1960s, traveling by train in Colorado was a great experience. Many of the tracks were restored from the late 1800s and were made tourist attractions. Many mountain passage train tracks were upgraded for passenger travel. Amtrak's passenger line, the California Zephyr, is a Chicago to Denver route that makes its way into Colorado across the Continental Divide towards California. The train ride through Colorado is breathtaking.
The Colorado Auto Club joined forces with the Colorado Chapter of the Good Roads Association to lobby the Colorado legislature to pass a bill in 1901 that would create the Colorado Highway Commission. The office of the Colorado Highway Commission became effective in January 1910. Each county had to submit a map of its roads with annotations of the most traveled roads. The road projects consisted of 1,650 miles of Colorado roadways. The construction of new roads in Colorado began.
However, some citizens opposed opening up Colorado to paved roads and interstate travel. These people believed that car owners should fund the road projects. Nevertheless, the Colorado Highway Commission carried forth the plans to improve state roads, and in 1919, it was one of the first states to impose a 1-cent tax on fuel to help fund roadway projects.
The creation of the Colorado Highway Commission was vital to other transportation factors (air and rail) having an impact in the State of Colorado. The Colorado Highway Commission was the test commission for transportation activities. It would become the standard by which all future transportation endeavors would be handled and the legislature would use the prototype of the Colorado Highway Commission to address air travel and rail operations.
By 1940, the last stretches of road to be completed were mountain passes. U.S. 40 became the first paved highway across the Continental Divide. The first interstate highway to be built through the Federal Highway Act was Interstate 70.
The first phase of Interstate 70 was built between the Kansas state line and Denver. An agreement with officials and politicians in Utah, Interstate 70 was allowed to be extended between Denver and Grand Junction into Utah.
The second highway, Interstate 25, is Colorado's main north-south connector. I-25 construction was completed in Colorado in September 1969, running 299 miles from the New Mexico to Wyoming state lines.
During World War I, Colorados' economy and venture into aviation technology experienced a boom. After 1918, aerospace detachments, companies and the military saw that Colorado was a viable place to manufacture, test aircraft and establishing military operations.
Colorado was very critical to the war efforts in World War I and II. During World War II, pilots were trained at a field called "Lowry Field," which would be commissioned as Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado. B29 pilots would receive their flight training at Lowry Field. The United States Air Force, which was created in 1947, built an Air Training Command through Lowry Air Force Base, which led to the creation of NORAD and the United States Air Force Academy, first based in Lowry.
On Oct. 17, 1929 , Denver Municipal Airport was opened as the first major passenger airport in Colorado, and it was renamed Stapleton Airfield after expansion in 1944. Stapleton became a western hub for airlines such as, United, TWA, Pan American Airways and American Airlines. Stapleton was decommissioned in 1995, and Denver built Denver International Airport (DIA) 19 miles northeast of the old Stapleton Airport Terminal. It's the largest international airport in the United States, and third-largest international airport in the world after King Fahd International Airport and Montreal-Mirabel International Airport.
Transportation projects are still "on the board" in Colorado. A $1.67 billion project called T-REX was completed in January 2007 and is the largest multimodal transportation project in Colorado's history. The T-Rex project included extending expressway lanes with extension of light rail train lines from South Denver and Aurora into downtown Denver.
Engineering plans would extend light-rail services from Fort Collins to Pueblo by using existing train tracks. These plans are in the development stage.
Colorado has come a long way from the days of dusty trails and rough mountain passages. The 21st century holds new challenges and improved modes of transportation for those who live in and visit Colorado.
