Rio Grande Railway began to lay rails south from Denver. Palmer and his associates had agreed that the choice of narrow-gauge would be well suited to the mountainous country, and relatively less expensive construction costs would enhance the viability of the new railroad. The original north–south plans of the D&RG eventually expanded to include extensions throughout the booming mining country of central and southwestern Colorado. In July 1881, the Denver & Rio Grande reached Durango and started building the final 45-mile stretch up the Animas River to Silverton. The first 18 miles to Rockwood were completed by late November. The remainder of the route entered the narrow Animas Canyon, which has steep granite walls. The labor crew, made up of mostly Chinese and Irish immigrants, blasted the canyon cliffs off and left a narrow, level shelf to lay the tracks on. Grading was completed by late spring 1882. The D&RG reached Silverton on July 10, 1882. Trains hauling passengers and freight began immediately. The D&RG soon re-emerged as the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (1886) and ultimately began operating as the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) on July 31, 1921, after re-organization of the Colorado lines and Rio Grande Western of Utah. Eventually, the railroad became widely known as the "Rio Grande". The Silverton branch, as it became known, struggled under D&RG ownership following the Panic of 1893 and the end of free coinage of silver. Typical of many portions of the surviving narrow-gauge branches into the middle of the twentieth century, the line faced sagging revenue due to ever-declining mining ventures, highway trucking competition and insignificant passenger revenue. Annual snowslides and several major floods on the branch would only continue to challenge the railroad's ability to survive. The Silverton After World War II, domestic tourism began to grow across the country and the Silverton branch of the railroad would benefit. Bolstered by national exposure via Hollywood movies being filmed along the line in the late 1940s, the railroad created The Silverton, a summer-only train service, on June 24, 1947. A short time later, the railroad adorned a locomotive and four coaches with a colorful yellow paint scheme and launched modest public promotion. With this effort, "The Painted Train" officially started a new era of tourism that continues to this day. Freight traffic, however, continued to decline, and during the 1950s The Silverton operated as a mixed train.