High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Panic of 1873 was the start of the Long Depression, a severe nationwide economic depression in the United States that lasted until 1879. It was precipitated by the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia banking firm Jay Cooke & Company on September 18, 1873. It was one of a series of economic crises in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The American Civil War was followed by a boom in railroad construction. Thirty-five thousand miles (56,000 km) of new track was laid across the country between 1866 and 1873.