In early 1855, Colonel Charles L. Wilson and Theodore Judah started work on the Sacramento Valley Railroad; the railroad was the first to be chartered west of the Mississippi River and was done so by Colonel Wilson three years prior. A money panic caused by an unfavorable winter forced Wilson to retire from the project, and he was replaced by Joseph Libbey Folsom; Folsom died in July and was replaced by C. K. Garrison. As ongoing difficulties for the project continued to hinder operations, the length of the railroad was limited to the city of Granite City (later renamed for Folsom), twenty-two miles away. After Judah completed the track for the Sacramento Valley Railroad in 1856, he petitioned the U.S. government for a transcontinental railroad. However, tensions over slavery between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in the east took precedence over Judah's proposition.