The 1893 U.S. financial crisis linked to railroad failures and the collapse of the Reading Railroad was the Panic of 1893.
The crisis followed years of railroad expansion, heavy borrowing, and speculation. When the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad entered receivership in February 1893, concern spread through financial markets. The failure of the National Cordage Company soon intensified the panic, while doubts about the United States' gold reserves weakened confidence in the dollar.
Banks failed, businesses closed, and unemployment rose sharply. The depression that followed became one of the worst economic downturns of the nineteenth century. It also contributed to major political conflict over monetary policy, especially the debate between supporters of the gold standard and advocates of silver.
The Panic of 1893 is separate from the Panic of 1873, which began amid railroad speculation and banking problems in Europe and North America. Both crises, however, show how heavily leveraged railroads could transmit financial distress.