The 1893 U.S. crash and banking crisis associated with widespread railroad failures was the Panic of 1893.
The crisis followed the collapse of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the failure of the National Cordage Company. Investors became increasingly concerned about railroad debt, bank reserves, and the U.S. government’s monetary position. A major run on banks and withdrawals of gold intensified the contraction.
Hundreds of banks and railroads failed, unemployment rose, and the downturn became one of the deepest economic depressions of nineteenth-century America. The panic also helped reshape national politics, including the debate over silver and gold-backed money.
It is sometimes confused with the Panic of 1873, which helped begin the Long Depression, or the Panic of 1907, which later encouraged U.S. banking reform. The Panic of 1893 was a distinct crisis with its own railroad and monetary triggers.