The Big Four was the name popularly given to the chief entrepreneurs in the building of the Central Pacific Railroad, the western portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States. However, the four of them preferred to be known as "The Associates".

• Leland Stanford - President
• Collis P. Huntington - Vice President
• Mark Hopkins - Treasurer
• Charles Crocker - Construction supervisor and president of Charles Crocker & Co., a CP subidiary.

In popular culture

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Ambrose Bierce included characters based on the Big Four in his work Black Beetles in Amber as Sootymug (Hopkins), Happy Hunty (Huntington), Cowboy Charley (Crocker) and Leland, The Kid (Stanford).

References

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External links

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• The Story of the Central Pacific. The Rise of the Big Four: Huntington, Stanford, Crocker, and Hopkins. By WF Bailey The PACIFIC MONTHLY January, 1908.

American railroad executives of the 19th century