The 1893 U.S. financial panic that followed the collapse of railroad financing was called the Panic of 1893.
The crisis began after the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad failed in February 1893, helping undermine confidence in heavily leveraged rail companies. The insolvency of the National Cordage Company in May intensified the panic. Bank runs followed, thousands of businesses and hundreds of banks failed, and the United States entered a severe depression.
The panic also pressured the U.S. Treasury's gold reserves because people exchanged paper currency for gold. President Grover Cleveland eventually supported a deal with the investment syndicate led by J. P. Morgan and August Belmont to replenish the Treasury's supply. The economic downturn lasted for years and contributed to major political conflict over monetary policy.
The Panic of 1893 is distinct from the Panic of 1873, which was associated with the failure of Jay Cooke & Company, and the Panic of 1907, which later helped motivate the creation of the Federal Reserve System.