<Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> In 1863, with all the political bickering over railroad legislation, entrepreneurs opened their pockets and set their sights on the American Southwest leading to the gradual construction east to west of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway; the name eponymously reflecting the intentions of the founders, the expected eastern terminus to be in Atchison, Kansas . </P> <P> Inside Kansas, the AT&SF roadbed roughly paralleled the Santa Fe Trail west of Topeka as it expanded between 1868 and 1874 . When a railroad bridge was built across the Missouri River to connect eastern markets to the Dodge City cattle trail and Colorado coal mines, the railroad spurred the growth of Kansas City . Kansas City was on the opposite shore from Saint Joseph, Missouri, one of several trail head towns feeding settlers into the American West . Building the railway so that it extended westwards to destinations in and beyond the New Mexico border was delayed and kept the fledgling railroad gasping for cash . In a move to bootstrap their own base market, the railway began offering packaged "Shopping Excursion deals" to potential buyers desiring to look over a real estate parcel . The railroad began to discount such trips to visit its land offices and gave back the ticket price as part of the purchase price, if a sale was concluded . </P> <P> The railroad's sale of its land granted by congress fostered growth of new towns and businesses along its route, which generated railway traffic and revenues . With this financial base, the railway extended west, gradually adding new connections through rougher west country along the western Trail . With the development of rail transport, traffic on the Trail soon dropped to merely local trade . In a sense, after World War I the trail was reborn; by the 1920s it gradually became paved automobile roads . </P>

Which of the santa fe trail’s two routes stretched over 800 miles and traveled through the rockies