The California Central Railroad was incorporated on April 21, 1857, to build a railroad to Marysville from Folsom, the terminus of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, under the management contract dated May 1, 1857 of Colonel C. L. Wilson. Ground breaking took place at Folsom on June 1,1858. Because many white workers left for the gold fields of the Fraser River, the contractor hired some fifty Chinses laborers and demonstrated that "Chinese laborers can be profitably employed in grading railroads in California." This was one of the earliest employment in California of Chinese laborers for railroad building. The heaviest grading in the first eighteen-mile division was from Folsom to the American river, which involved three main cuts that demanded the use of powder, and was accomplished with a labor force of about a hundred men. The American river was crossed with a single-span 300-ton truss bridge, adapted from a design by S.W. Hall to support 120 tons of load, resting on stone piers, the top of which was 25 feet by 9 feet, constructed on the two banks of the river. According to the Sacramento Daily Union, this bridge was the first railroad bridge of any importance built in the State and the American the first river crossed by a train of cars. At Auburn Ravine, where the line makes an elbow and turns northward toward Marysville, a new town Lincoln was located with town lots on sale. At an auction in Sacramento in November 1859, over four thousand dollars was realized from the sales of lots in Lincoln, ranging from 20 to 400 dollars for each lot. With the grading on the first division of the road from Folsom completed eighteen miles to Lincoln, track laying began at Folsom on December 30, 1859. With the help of the Chinese laborers, the company was able to complete in October 1861 a 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge line on one track between Folsom and Lincoln. On April 26, 1864 the Central Pacific Railroad opened a line towards Rocklin that crossed the California Central Railroad line that was already operating from Folsom north to Lincoln. The crossing location was at Griders (an existing stage coach station), which became known as Junction, then eventually as Roseville. On July 22, 1868, the company was foreclosed and existing operations were purchased by the California and Oregon Railroad.