San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway
railway line in the United States of America

The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway first began operation in the U.S. state of Texas in 1886. It was developed by Uriah Lott and businessmen of San Antonio as a direct route from the city to Aransas Bay on the Texas Gulf coast. It was eventually absorbed in the 20th century by Southern Pacific.
Background
Uriah Lott, a transportation entrepreneur, engaged his friends Richard King and contractor Mifflin Kenedy in development of three railroad lines in Texas to improve connections from major cities to smaller ones, and to trading areas in Mexico. The Corpus Christi, San Diego and Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad connected Corpus Christi and Laredo. The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway ran from Houston to Brownsville through the Rio Grande Valley and related stops.
Supported by businessmen from San Antonio, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway was developed to connect San Antonio with Aransas Bay on Texas' Gulf coast, where a deepwater port was being developed. Lott, Texas was named in the developer's honor. (After damaging hurricanes in the early 20th century, the US Army Corps of Engineers designated Corpus Christi to be the deep-water port in this area.)
Line history
The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway Company was incorporated in 1884, to fulfill the need for a direct railway route from San Antonio to Mexico.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway” as railway line in the United States of America. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as railway line in the United States of America. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3471349. VIAF identifies the subject as 139584611. The Library of Congress control number is n82218094. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1886 and 1884.
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This entry incorporates text from “San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.