The U.S. financial crisis that began in 1893 after major railroad failures and a run on gold reserves was the Panic of 1893.
The panic followed the collapse of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the failure of the National Cordage Company. Investors became increasingly worried about railroad debt, industrial weakness, and the declining gold reserves of the United States Treasury. A run on banks and businesses spread across the country.
The crisis produced a severe depression. Unemployment rose sharply, thousands of businesses and banks failed, and railroad bankruptcies disrupted the economy. The panic also intensified political arguments over the gold standard and silver coinage.
The Panic of 1893 is sometimes confused with the Panic of 1873, another major crisis linked to railroad speculation. The later Panic of 1907 was a separate episode that helped motivate the creation of the Federal Reserve.