The Panic of 1873 was an international financial crisis and depression. Occurring the year following Bismarck’s founding, the crisis soured Bismarck’s early future, hastened by the bankruptcy of railroad financier Jay Cooke & Company on September 18th of that year and Northern Pacific’s own bankruptcy in 1875.
The Panic of 1873 caused most railroad construction to halt for almost six years. As a result, the line essentially ended at Bismarck until construction resumed in 1878 and the train bridge was dedicated in October 1882.
