He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Judah studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after his family moved to Troy, New York.
Theodore Judah was known as "Crazy Judah" because of his single-minded passion for driving a railroad through the wall of mountains known as the Sierra Nevada.
Theodore died of Yellow Fever (Panama Fever as it was also known) while taking a boat trip with his wife back to the east coast of the United States to gather more financing for the Central Pacific Railroad.
