Railroads started to emanate from Houston in the 1850s. However, the first railroad to operate in Texas was the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway, which terminated at Harrisburg, Houston's rival to the east. This road began service in 1853. Houston gained access to this railway to the Brazos bottoms in October 1856 through the construction of the Houston Tap Road. Construction on a railroad based in Houston started in 1853. The railroad, which was later known as the Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC), was complete to Cypress in 1853. The H&TC progressed beyond Cypress, laying track through Hempstead and Navasota, and reached Millican on the eve of the Civil War. Meanwhile, in 1858, the municipally owned Houston Tap was acquired by a private railroad developer, and served as the basis for the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway, a road to the sugar plantations, which began service to Columbia in 1860. Another railroad opened during this period, accessing Houston from its initial southern terminus opposite Galveston. The Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad completed tracks from Virginia Point to Houston on January 8, 1859. The next year Houston provided railroad access to Galveston when the Island City finished the long viaduct across the back bay. From 1857, the Texas and New Orleans Railroad broke ground north of Buffalo Bayou in 1857 and continued to construct the road into East Texas through 1860.