when did the transcontinental railroad start being built
January 8 , 1863
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after a strike. The Central Pacific broke ground on January 8, 1863. Due to the lack of transportation alternatives from the manufacturing centers on the east coast, virtually all of their tools and machinery including rails, railroad switches, railroad turntables, freight and passenger cars, and steam locomotives were transported first by train to east coast ports. They were then loaded on ships which either sailed around South America's Cape Horn, or offloaded the cargo at the Isthmus of Panama, where it was sent across via paddle steamer and the Panama Railroad. The Panama Railroad gauge was 5 ft (1524 mm),
First Transcontinental Railroad
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than one degree average. This "new" route had never become an emigrant route because it lacked the water and grass to feed the emigrants' oxen and mules. Steam locomotives did not need grass, and the railroad companies could drill wells for water if necessary. Coal had been discovered in Wyoming and reported on by John C. Frémont in his 1843 expedition across Wyoming, and was already being exploited by Utah residents from towns like Coalville, Utah and later Kemmerer, Wyoming by the time the Transcontinental railroad was built. Union Pacific needed coal to fuel its steam locomotives on the almost
First Transcontinental Railroad
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Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881) The Utah Central Railroad was the first railroad in the U.S. state of Utah other than the main line of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Built by Mormons, it connected Salt Lake City to the transcontinental line at Ogden. It has since become part of the Union Pacific Railroad, which operates the line as the Salt Lake Subdivision; "FrontRunner" commuter rail tracks were added alongside the UP freight line in 2008. The company was incorporated in 1869, and completed the line in January 1870. At the time the First Transcontinental Railroad was being built, Brigham Young felt
Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881)
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united the country by rail. The first of these, the "Pacific Railroad", was built by the Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad to link the San Francisco Bay at Alameda, California, with the nation's existing eastern railroad network at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska, thereby creating the world's first transcontinental railroad when it opened in 1869. Its construction was made possible by the US government under Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, 1864, and 1867. The world's First Transcontinental Railroad was built between 1863 and 1869 to join the eastern and western halves of the United States. Begun just before the
Transcontinental railroad
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which was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River. This in turn connected to Kansas Pacific trains going from Kansas City to Denver, which in turn had built the Denver Pacific Railway connecting to the Union Pacific. In August 1870, the Kansas Pacific drove the last spike connecting to the Denver Pacific line at Strasburg, Colorado and the first true Atlantic to Pacific United States railroad was completed. Kansas City's head start in connecting to a true transcontinental railroad contributed to it rather than Omaha becoming the dominant rail center west of Chicago. The Kansas Pacific became part of
First Transcontinental Railroad
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of Colorado. The Kansas Pacific Railroad linked with the Denver Pacific Railway via Denver to Cheyenne in 1870. The original transcontinental railroad route did not pass through the two biggest cities in the so-called Great American Desert—Denver, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Feeder railroad lines were soon built to service these two and other cities and states along the route. Modern-day Interstate 80 roughly follows the path of the railroad from Sacramento across modern day California, Nevada, Wyoming and Nebraska, with a few exceptions. Most significantly, the two routes are different between Wells, Nevada and Echo, Utah. In this
First Transcontinental Railroad
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that the opponents of the Pacific Railroad Act had from the beginning been right: the western transcontinental railroad scheme was an unprofitable venture. The opponents had from the start believed the whole project was a bare-faced fraud by some capitalists to build a "railroad to nowhere" and to make tremendous profits doing so, all the while getting the United States government to pay for it. The opponents also thought the construction and its routing were being developed without regard for trying to create a viable and profitable transportation enterprise when the railroad line was completed. The principal means of the
Crédit Mobilier of America scandal
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Kansas Pacific Railway The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontinental railroad was being constructed by the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific, it tried and failed to join the transcontinental ranks. It was originally the "Union Pacific, Eastern Division", although it was completely independent. The Pennsylvania railroad, working with Missouri financiers, designed it as a feeder line to the transcontinental system. The owners lobbied heavily in Washington
Kansas Pacific Railway
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site. The Union Pacific Railroad did not start construction for another 18 months until July 1865. They were delayed by difficulties obtaining financial backing and the unavailability of workers and materials due to the Civil War. Their start point in the new city of Omaha, Nebraska was not yet connected via railroad to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Equipment needed to begin work was initially delivered to Omaha and Council Bluffs by paddle steamers on the Missouri River. The Union Pacific was so slow in beginning construction during 1865 that they sold two of the four steam locomotives they had purchased. After
First Transcontinental Railroad
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integral part of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The earliest railroad ferries ran from Oakland Point and from Alameda Terminal when Alameda was still a peninsula. The ferry pier at Oakland Point was greatly enlarged to form the Oakland Long Wharf. These railroad ferries mostly carried passengers, not trains, although there was some ferrying of freight cars to San Francisco. When the Central Pacific re-routed the Sacramento to Oakland segment of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1876, a ferry across the Carquinez Strait was established, and the world's largest ferryboat, the Solano was built (later joined by a sister ferry, the slightly
Ferries of San Francisco Bay
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to the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board in 1991, which currently operates the commuter rail service known as Caltrain over the route. The Union Pacific Railroad maintains trackage rights over the line for freight traffic. The "Daily Alta California" called this segment the westernmost portion of the transcontinental Pacific Railroad, with another section planned by the Western Pacific Railroad Company to connect San Jose and Sacramento, where it would join with the Central Pacific's rail line being built east to Truckee. In order to preserve planned compatibility with transcontinental rail traffic, the line was laid at what is now standard
San Francisco and San Jose Railroad
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First Transcontinental Railroad The First Transcontinental Railroad (also called the Great Transcontinental Railroad, known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Construction was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds. The Western
First Transcontinental Railroad
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no matter how hard he tried, his plan was never accepted, and he stopped campaigning in 1851. Asa Whitney lived long enough to see his dream become a reality; he was alive when the first transcontinental railroad was completed. He died in 1874, five years after the golden spike was laid. Although Whitney’s plan fell through, word began spreading of the idea of a transcontinental railroad. His plan inspired many young, ambitious engineers, one of which being Theodore Judah, a man who helped make the dream of a transcontinental railroad into a reality. Asa Whitney Asa Whitney (1797-1874) was a
Asa Whitney
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Truckee, California and worked the winter of 1867–68 on their way down Truckee canyon ahead of the tracks being completed to Truckee. In Truckee canyon, five Howe truss bridges had to be built. This gave them a head start on getting to the "easy" miles across Nevada. In order to keep the higher portions of the Sierra grade open in the winter, of timber snow sheds were built between Blue Cañon and Truckee in addition to utilizing snowplows pushed by locomotives, as well as manual shovelling. With the advent of more efficient oil fired steam and later diesel electric power
First Transcontinental Railroad
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from Tonopah, Nevada, to the tidewater at San Diego, California, but never made it to either on its own rails. It was famous for being the last of the three railroads built to cross the Death Valley region, and outlasting them by over 30 years providing dedicated and reliable service to the desert residents. The T&T also formed part of a potential north-south transcontinental railroad route, connected together by four different US railway companies, later used as the basis to potentially form a Mid-Pacific Railroad. The railroad operated from 1907 till 1940, when it suspended operations due to a lack
Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad
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they also formed the backbones of cross-country passenger and freight transportation networks. A transcontinental railroad in the United States is any continuous rail line connecting a location on the U.S. Pacific coast with one or more of the railroads of the nation's eastern trunk line rail systems operating between the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers and the U.S. Atlantic coast. The first concrete plan for a transcontinental railroad in the United States was presented to Congress by Asa Whitney in 1845. A series of transcontinental railroads built over the last third of the 19th century created a nationwide transportation network that
Transcontinental railroad
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of northern and central Nevada. Though Elko lies along the route of the historic California Trail, it was first inhabited only in 1868, when it was at the east end of the railroad tracks built by the Central Pacific Railroad (the portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad built from California to Utah). When the railroad crews moved on, Elko remained, serving as a center for ranching, mining, rail freight and general supplies. Elko is said to have been named by Charles Crocker, a superintendent of the Central Pacific Railroad. He was especially fond of animal names and added the letter
Elko, Nevada
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granted lands and construction privileges for the First Transcontinental Railroad project under the Pacific Railway Acts. Construction of this Overland Route was begun in 1863 and completed in 1869. The southern route did not become a reality until 1883, when the Southern Pacific Railroad linked New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico with Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. The Memorial document is an attempt to persuade the U.S. Congress to authorize construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad via a southern route through New Mexico rather than the route that was eventually authorized by the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862
New Mexican Railway Company
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approximately southwest of the original city. This location is now known as the Casco Viejo (Old Quarter) of the city. One year before the start of the California Gold Rush, the Panama Railroad Company was formed, but the railroad did not begin full operation until 1855. Between 1848 and 1869, the year the first transcontinental railroad was completed in the United States, about 375,000 persons crossed the isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 225,000 in the opposite direction. This traffic greatly increased the prosperity of the city during that period. The construction of the Panama Canal was of
Panama City
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(in the San Francisco Bay Area).. The previous year, the station served 78,827 passengers, or about 216 per day. A depot has existed at this location since the First Transcontinental Railroad arrived in Reno in 1868. A series of wooden depots, built by the Central Pacific Railroad burned down. The current stucco depot was built by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1926. The Southern Pacific Depot was also used by the Virginia & Truckee Railroad until 1950, when the railroad ceased operations. The Western Pacific Railroad historically provided service to Reno, but never used this depot – instead using the
Reno station
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start a steamship line to California, since the Gold Rush started the next year. The company's first vessel to make the trip was packed with passengers. Pacific Mail eventually became American President Lines, which is now part of Neptune Orient Lines. Following the Steamship Company, Aspinwall then promoted a railway in Panama. The project, which began in May 1850 and was later known as the Panama Canal Railway, was the first transcontinental railroad in the Americas and was built to provide a shorter and more secure path between the United States' East and West Coasts. When completed in 1855, the
William Henry Aspinwall
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Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail route between California and Utah built eastwards from the West Coast in the 1860s, to complete the western part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It later became part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the energy consumed by political disputes over slavery. With the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican Party controlled the US Congress. They passed legislation authorizing the railroad, with financing in the form of government railroad bonds. These
Central Pacific Railroad
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construction of a transcontinental railroad strengthened the connection of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories to the Dominion of Canada they had recently joined, and acted as a bulwark against potential incursions by the United States. Subsequently, two other transcontinental lines were built in Canada: the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) opened another line to the Pacific in 1912, and the combined Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR)/National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) system opened in 1917 following the completion of the Quebec Bridge, although its line to the Pacific opened in 1914. The CNoR, GTPR, and NTR were nationalized to form the Canadian
Transcontinental railroad
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Milwaukee Railroad Depot (Alberton, Montana) The Milwaukee Railroad Depot in Alberton, Montana was built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (a.k.a. Milwaukee Road) in 1908, during its Pacific Extension from Chicago, Illinois to Tacoma, Washington from 1906-09. The depot is a rectangular one-story wood frame building constructed in the Craftsman style. When the Milwaukee Road built its transcontinental line, it placed a division point at Alberton. In addition to the depot, there were also a roundhouse, turntable and locomotive repair shops. The depot became the center of the commercial district of the town and the railroad was
Milwaukee Railroad Depot (Alberton, Montana)
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Pacific Railroad Company built of track from Oakland/Alameda to Sacramento, California. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) constructed eastward from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory (U.T.). The Union Pacific built from the road's eastern terminus at Council Bluffs near Omaha, Nebraska westward to Promontory Summit. The railroad opened for through traffic on May 10, 1869 when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold "Last Spike" (later often referred to as the "Golden Spike") with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit. The coast-to-coast railroad connection revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West. It brought the
First Transcontinental Railroad
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Alameda Terminal Alameda Terminal was a railroad station located in Alameda, California on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. It was built in 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the First Transcontinental Railroad project and was designated the western terminus of the line. The Pacific Railroad Act passed by the United States Congress in 1862 authorized construction of a transcontinental railroad and telegraph line which was to connect the Central Pacific in the west with the Union Pacific Railroad in the east. The first construction activity took the line east from Sacramento. Subsequently the line was
Alameda Terminal
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Alameda Terminal Alameda Terminal was a railroad station located in Alameda, California on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. It was built in 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the First Transcontinental Railroad project and was designated the western terminus of the line. The Pacific Railroad Act passed by the United States Congress in 1862 authorized construction of a transcontinental railroad and telegraph line which was to connect the Central Pacific in the west with the Union Pacific Railroad in the east. The first construction activity took the line east from Sacramento. Subsequently the line was
Alameda Terminal
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1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1876 1877 1883 1885 1888 1899 1959 Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail route between California and Utah built eastwards from the West Coast in the 1860s, to complete the western part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It later became part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the energy consumed by political disputes over slavery. With the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican Party controlled the US Congress. They passed legislation authorizing
Central Pacific Railroad
611458
The Great Northern was the first transcontinental built without public money and just a few land grants, and was one of the few transcontinental railroads not to go bankrupt. Hill chose to build his railroad north of the competing Northern Pacific line, which had reached the Pacific Northwest over much more difficult terrain with more bridges, steeper grades, and tunnelling. Hill did much of the route planning himself, travelling over proposed routes on horseback. The key to the Great Northern line was Hill's use of the previously unmapped Marias Pass. The pass had initially been described by Lewis and Clark
James J. Hill
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of the Golden Spike in 1869, which signified the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. They are unique in that they are actually two power units on a single 98-foot frame, and are noted as being the largest diesel locomotives in the world. The 6916 is one of thirteen surviving Centennials. Union Pacific 6916 Union Pacific 6916 is a DDA40X diesel locomotive built for the Union Pacific Railroad. It now resides in the Eccles Rail Center at the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden, Utah. UP 6916 was built by the General Motors Electro-Motive Division in November 1969 as one of
Union Pacific 6916
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above with standard gauge . Since 1970, when the direct standard gauge line across the country was completed, the passenger train on the Sydney to Perth line has been called the Indian Pacific. The proposed Iron Boomerang would connect iron in the Pilbara with coal in Queensland, so achieving loaded operations in both directions. Transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple
Transcontinental railroad
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and in 1987 the OSL was merged into the UP. Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881) The Utah Central Railroad was the first railroad in the U.S. state of Utah other than the main line of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Built by Mormons, it connected Salt Lake City to the transcontinental line at Ogden. It has since become part of the Union Pacific Railroad, which operates the line as the Salt Lake Subdivision; "FrontRunner" commuter rail tracks were added alongside the UP freight line in 2008. The company was incorporated in 1869, and completed the line in January 1870. At the time
Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881)
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Museum moved its collection from San Francisco to the NCRy in 2007 for storage and limited operations after their home at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was shut down for redevelopment. The Niles Canyon Railway operates along a portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad constructed in the 1860s. The rail line through Niles Canyon was amongst the earliest to be built in California and provided the first rail connection between San Francisco Bay and the rest of the nation. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 authorized the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad to build the transcontinental railroad between
Niles Canyon Railway
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had learned their trade keeping the trains running during the American Civil War. The Central Pacific Railroad faced a labor shortage in the more sparsely settled West. It recruited Cantonese laborers in China, who did prodigious work building the line over and through the Sierra Nevada mountains and then across Nevada to their meeting in northern Utah. George J. Gould attempted to assemble a truly transcontinental system in the 1900s. The line from San Francisco, California, to Toledo, Ohio, was completed in 1909, consisting of the Western Pacific Railway, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Missouri Pacific Railroad, and Wabash Railroad.
Transcontinental railroad
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Street in downtown Haywards. It was destroyed in the 1868 Hayward earthquake, which bankrupted the railroad. The line was taken over in 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad (CP). The CP built its own line (part of the First Transcontinental Railroad) and station slightly to the west, and abandoned the original line south of San Leandro in 1873. Transcontinental service was shifted from the CP to a northern route on the California Pacific Railroad in 1879. The Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) leased the CP in 1885 and constructed a two-story wood station of standard design at Hayward. Long-distance service to
Hayward station (Amtrak)
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Northeastern Railroad, a portion of the transcontinental railway that was being constructed in the late 19th century. Initially its main industry was timbering for railroad ties. The railroad founders were also eager to found a major town that would persist after the railroad was completed; they formed the Alamogordo Improvement Company to develop the area, making Alamogordo an early example of a planned community. The Alamogordo Improvement Company owned all the land, platted the streets, built the first houses and commercial buildings, donated land for a college, and placed a restrictive covenant on each deed prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, or
Alamogordo, New Mexico
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Union Pacific No. 119 The No. 119 was a 4-4-0 steam locomotive which made history as one of the two locomotives (the other being the "Jupiter") to meet at Promontory Summit during the Golden Spike ceremony commemorating the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. No. 119 was built by Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey in 1868 along with numbers 116, 117, 118 and 120. This engine was scrapped in 1903, and a replica was built in 1979, 76 years after the scrapping. No. 119 was stationed in Ogden, Utah, when a call came from Thomas C.
Union Pacific No. 119
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as possible at a minimum cost. Within a few years, nearly all railroads converted to steel rails. Time was not standardized across the United States and Canada until November 18, 1883. In 1865, each railroad set its own time to minimize scheduling errors. To communicate easily up and down the line, the railroads built telegraph lines alongside the railroad. These lines eventually superseded the original First Transcontinental Telegraph which followed much of the Mormon Trail up the North Platte River and across the very thinly populated Central Nevada Route through central Utah and Nevada. The telegraph lines along the railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
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States. Both the northern and southern segments of the US 395 corridor were used by railroads built in the 1880s branching from the First Transcontinental Railroad in Nevada. Both lines were intended to connect the main Southern Pacific Railroad line in Nevada with other lines, but were never completed. On May 20, 1880 the Carson and Colorado Railway was formed, with the intent of extending a rail line from the existing Virginia and Truckee Railroad at Hawthorne, Nevada through the Owens Valley towards the Colorado River. Though the rail line was never finished, it did bring economic development to the
U.S. Route 395 in California
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were in supervisory or skilled craft positions and made more money than the Chinese. Most of the early work on the Central Pacific consisted of constructing the railroad track bed, cutting and/or blasting through or around hills, filling in washes, building bridges or trestles, digging and blasting tunnels and then laying the rails over the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) mountains. Once the Central Pacific was out of the Sierras and the Carson Range, progress sped up considerably as the railroad bed could be built over nearly flat ground. In those days, the Central Pacific once did a section of of track
First Transcontinental Railroad
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Diggings, after John S. Wood settled down, built a cabin, and started to mine in the ravine. The area soon developed into a mining camp, and it was officially named Auburn in August 1849. By 1850, the town's population had grown to about 1,500 people, and in 1851, Auburn was chosen as the seat of Placer County. Gold mining operations moved up the ravine to the site of present-day Auburn. In 1865, the Central Pacific Railroad, the western leg of the First Transcontinental Railroad, reached Auburn, as it was being built east from Sacramento toward Ogden, Utah. The restored Old
Auburn, California
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Beverly Railroad Bridge The Beverly Railroad Bridge was constructed by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (otherwise known as The Milwaukee Road) in 1909 during its Pacific Extension. In 1906, The Milwaukee Road began construction on its transcontinental rail line from Chicago, Illinois to Tacoma, Washington, which was completed three years later. The bridge crosses over the Columbia River and was built on concrete piers above the water to provide clearance for any river traffic. The spans include 14 Warren deck trusses, one Parker through truss, and deck plate girders on the approaches. When the railroad electrified in
Beverly Railroad Bridge
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Transcontinental Railroad, which was at that time just reaching completion. Under the new leadership and financing, during 1869–1873 the hard work of building through West Virginia was done with large crews working from both ends, much in the manner the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad had been built to complete their transcontinental rails. The final spike ceremony for the long line from Richmond to the Ohio River was held on January 29, 1873 at Hawks Nest railroad bridge in New River Gorge, near the town of Ansted, West Virginia. Virginia's long dream for the C&O had been
Peninsula Extension
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more difficult railroad engineering challenges. Dale Creek Bridge was long and above Dale Creek. The bridge components were pre-built of timber in Chicago, Illinois and then shipped on rail cars to Dale Creek for assembly. The eastern and western approaches to the bridge site, near the highest elevation on the transcontinental railroad, required cutting through granite for nearly a mile on each side. The initial Dale Creek bridge had a train speed limit of per hour across the bridge. Beyond Dale Creek, railroad construction paused at what became the town of Laramie, Wyoming to build a bridge across the Laramie
First Transcontinental Railroad
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intended to connect southern California with points further east. I-70 generally parallels the route of the Old Spanish Trail west of Crescent Junction. I-15 south of the junction with I-70 also generally parallels the trail. The first attempt to build a modern trade route through the area is credited to William Jackson Palmer, founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RG). Palmer started a project in 1880 to make what had been a local railroad from Colorado into a transcontinental railroad empire. This would mean a second transcontinental railroad would be built across Utah. This would also place
Interstate 70 in Utah
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hauling perishables on Santa Fe's main line from Chicago to Los Angeles. In addition, a roundhouse, maintenance and repair shops, a reading room, a depot, and a Harvey House were built by the railroad. Although the railroad eventually moved its maintenance operations from Waynoka, it continued train crew changes there until 1986. At the turn of the twenty-first century, between fifty and one hundred trains still passed daily through Waynoka on Oklahoma's fastest and busiest rail line. The predecessor company of TWA, Transcontinental Air Transport, built Oklahoma's first transcontinental airport in 1929 in Waynoka, at a site five miles northeast
Waynoka, Oklahoma
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containing the passenger waiting room, agent's office and agent's quarters. Both portions are extensively detailed with finials, braces, brackets and flat board trim. The depot was built to the Central Pacific Railroad's "Combination Depot #2" design, the only example of its type in Nevada, but one of six built on the Central Pacific system. None of the other five examples is known to have survived. The station was a regular stop for transcontinental train traffic, and was expanded in 1917. The station operated until the early 1990s, when it was closed. When what was now the Union Pacific Railroad announced
Central Pacific Railroad Depot (Lovelock, Nevada)
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Durant enticed other investors by offering to front money for the stock they purchased in their names. This scheme enabled Durant to control about half of the railroad stock. The initial construction of UP grade traversed land owned by Durant. Durant's railroad was paid by the mile, and to further inflate its profits, the UP built oxbows of unneeded track, and by July 4, 1865, it had only reached from Omaha after 2½ years of construction. Durant manipulated market prices on his stocks by spreading rumors about which railroads he had an interest in were being considered for connection with
First Transcontinental Railroad
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the Union Pacific in 1880. On June 4, 1876, an express train called the "Transcontinental Express" arrived in San Francisco via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after it had left New York City. Only ten years before, the same journey would have taken months over land or weeks on ship, possibly all the way around South America. The Central Pacific got a direct route to San Francisco when it was merged with the Southern Pacific Railroad to create the Southern Pacific Company in 1885. The Union Pacific initially took over the Southern Pacific in 1901
First Transcontinental Railroad
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railway. The construction will start in 2019 and will be finished in 2024. The new railway is planned to be 3750 km in length. There are two possible tracks in discussion: Both have an Atlantic end in Santos, Brazil but the Pacific ends are in Ilo, Peru and Matarani, Peru. Another longer Transcontinental freight-only railroad linking Lima, Peru, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is under development. Australia The Trans-Australian Railway was the first route operated by the Federal Government. In the 1940s, 1970s, and 2000s steps were taken to rationalise the gauge chaos and connect the mainland capital cities mentioned
Transcontinental railroad
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only privately funded and successfully built transcontinental railroad in U.S. history. No federal subsidies were used during its construction, unlike all other transcontinental railroads. The Great Northern was built in stages, slowly to create profitable lines, before extending the road further into the undeveloped Western territories. In a series of the earliest public relations campaigns, contests were held to promote interest in the railroad and the ranchlands along its route. Fred J. Adams used promotional incentives such as feed and seed donations to farmers getting started along the line. Contests were all-inclusive, from largest farm animals to largest freight carload
Great Northern Railway (U.S.)
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the highway is roughly . The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States was built in the 1860s, linking the railroad network of the eastern US with California on the Pacific coast. Finished on 10 May 1869 at the famous golden spike event at Promontory Summit, Utah, it created a nationwide mechanized transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West, catalyzing the transition from the wagon trains of previous decades to a modern transportation system. Although an accomplishment, it achieved the status of first transcontinental railroad by connecting myriad eastern US railroads to the Pacific and
North America
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Gadsden Purchase from Mexico of about of land in northmost Mexico for $10,000,000. In the fall of 1856 he retired as minister to Mexico, and returned to Charleston where Gadsden died in 1858. The sectional crisis of the late 1850s and subsequent Civil War delayed construction of a proposed southern transcontinental railroad to California along the 32d parallel, just to the north of the Mexican border. Between 1878 and 1881, though, the Southern Pacific Railroad (now part of the Union Pacific Railroad) built the section of the southern transcontinental between Yuma and El Paso within the Gadsden Purchase territory. At
James Gadsden
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he built a home at 12th and Jefferson streets in what is now Downtown Portland. Chapman then returned to the practice of law. He also worked to secure Portland's economic future by promoting the construction of the railroad line to California to link with the transcontinental rail line. From 1870 to 1876 he started three companies with the goal of creating a railroad connecting Portland to the Union Pacific's transcontinental railroad. Chapman's proposed line would have traveled through the Columbia River Gorge to The Dalles, Oregon, where it would then travel southeast to Salt Lake City, Utah, linking to the
William W. Chapman
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Phil Roberts. President Abraham Lincoln reportedly told Oakes Ames that if he could get the transcontinental railroad built then he would be "the most remembered man of the century." Lincoln personally recruited Oakes after progress by and financial support for Credit Mobilier of America, the construction company charged with building the railroad, ground to a halt. The Ames brothers succeeded where others failed and completed the transcontinental railway. However, in 1873 charges of financial fraud were leveled at Oakes, tarnishing his and the Union Pacific Railroad Company's reputation. Public outcry towards Oakes and other "Kings of Frauds" associated with scandal
Ames Monument
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Warren G. Harding. The Erie Depot is Barberton, Ohio's first commercial building and was built in 1890 by Barberton's founder, American industrialist Ohio Columbus Barber, to promote the new town. Barberton was officially founded in 1891. The depot is built in the Stick Eastlake architectural style and is on the Erie Railroad. The Erie Railroad linked New York City with Chicago. What became the Erie railroad tracks were running through what was then Norton in 1851, 39 years before the Erie Depot was built. The Erie Railroad was built only 50 years after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, which,
Barberton station (Erie Railroad)
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rise, Majors and his colleagues proposed to deliver the mail over a central route through Salt Lake City, Utah and proposed doing it in 10 days via a horse relay called the Pony Express. Even though they succeeded in making the deliveries, they did not get the contract. They went bankrupt after the Transcontinental Telegraph opened in October 1861, as its competition eliminated the need for some mail service. He provided rail ties for the crews of the Union Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad. After the railroad was completed, he continued to haul freight to towns not
Alexander Majors
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"Hell on Wheels". Thomas Durant is a regular character in the series and is portrayed by actor Colm Meaney. In 2015, a Lego model depicting the Golden Spike Ceremony, the event that symbolically marked the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, was submitted to the Lego Ideas website. In the 2002 DreamWorks Animation movie, "", the main character, the horse Spirit, is delivered with other horses to pull a steam locomotive at a work site for the Transcontinental Railroad. For maps and railroad pictures of this era shortly after the advent of photography see: First Transcontinental Railroad The First Transcontinental
First Transcontinental Railroad
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Transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies along a continuous route. Although Europe is crisscrossed by railways, the railroads within Europe are usually not considered transcontinental, with the possible exception of the historic Orient Express. Transcontinental railroads helped open up unpopulated interior regions of continents to exploration and settlement that would not otherwise have been feasible. In many cases
Transcontinental railroad
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Asa Whitney Asa Whitney (1797-1874) was a highly successful dry-goods merchant and transcontinental railroad promoter. He was one of the first backers of an American transcontinental railway. A trip to China in 1842-44 impressed upon Whitney the need for a transcontinental railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When Whitney returned to the United States in 1844, he realized the benefits from such an undertaking, and spent a great deal of money trying to get the Congress to take up the project. In 1849, he published A Project for a Railroad to the Pacific. For years he continued to write
Asa Whitney
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he built the church, doing much of the work himself, and in 1869 he opened Seattle’s first Catholic church at Third Avenue and Washington Street, on the site where the present-day Prefontaine Building stands. On July 14, 1873 the Northern Pacific Railway announced that they had chosen the then-village of Tacoma over Seattle as the Western terminus of their transcontinental railroad. The railroad barons appear to have been gambling on the advantage they could gain from being able to buy up the land around their terminus cheaply instead of bringing the railroad into a more established Pacific port town. Seattle
History of Seattle
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Gasconade Bridge train disaster The Gasconade Bridge train disaster was a rail accident in Gasconade, Missouri on November 1, 1855. The Gasconade bridge collapsed under the locomotive O'Sullivan while crossing. Thirty-one people were killed in the first major deadly bridge collapse in American history. More recent sources put the number of deaths at 43. At the time of the disaster, the Pacific Railroad was being built west from St. Louis, which was to be the starting point for the first transcontinental railroad, an effort led by Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Construction had begun on the railroad on July
Gasconade Bridge train disaster
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He made and lost several fortunes. He is best known for donating one of the golden spikes used in the celebration of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869. The Josiah Stanford family owned the home from 1882-1903. Josiah Stanford was a brother of Leland Stanford, who was one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, which built the portion of the first transcontinental railroad east from Sacramento to Promontory Summit. In 1907, the city of Oakland purchased the Camron-Stanford house and other private residences bordering Lake Merritt. The city razed the other
Camron-Stanford House
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Niles is Mayhew Spring, also known as Mayhew's Sulphur Spring, which was located north of the Niles railroad depot. The facility was owned by H.A. Meyhew. The coast-to-coast completion of the Transcontinental Railroad is reported to have occurred in nearby Niles Canyon. In September 1869, four months after the famous golden spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah, the Central Pacific Railroad completed the transcontinental rail link between Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay, finishing the track through the canyon. The Central Pacific had acquired the Western Pacific and other local railroads and built track to connect them at a waterfront
Fremont, California
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Muscatine, Iowa, ending in Washington, Iowa. Durant built up his fortune by manipulating the M&M stock via rumors. First he drove up M&M stock by saying the transcontinental railroad would travel across Iowa via the M&M while at the same time quietly buying depressed Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad (CR&M) stock. Then he spread rumors that drove up the CR&M stock that the transcontinental would follow that line instead and Durant bought back the newly depressed M&M stock. The gambit made Durant and his cohorts $5 million. The Rock Island Line bought the M&M on July 9, 1866, and completed
Mississippi and Missouri Railroad
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a temporary hospital to treat the wounded. The Irish at Miller’s Landing (renamed New Haven, MO in 1856) were complemented for their hospitality. Scavengers arrived at the wreck site the next day and carried off anything of value. Surviving cars from the wreck and the locomotive and tender were brought to Jefferson City by ferry boat. A Pacific Railroad train did eventually reach Jefferson City four months later, but St. Louis' plan to be the starting point of the transcontinental railroad was unsuccessful. In 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah, stretching from San Francisco to
Gasconade Bridge train disaster
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treeless plains across Nebraska and Wyoming. Coal shipments by rail were also looked on as a potentially major source of income—this potential is still being realized. The Union Pacific reached the new railroad town of Cheyenne in December 1867, having laid about that year. They paused over the winter, preparing to push the track over Evans (Sherman's) pass. At , Evans/Sherman's pass is the highest point reached on the transcontinental railroad. About beyond Evans/Sherman's pass, the railroad had to build an extensive bridge over the Dale Creek canyon (41.103803, −105.454797, lat., long.). The Dale Creek Crossing was one of their
First Transcontinental Railroad
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1858. As a boy he was raised in part along the roadbed of the Union Pacific Railroad during its construction as part of the First Transcontinental Railroad; his father ran businesses that catered to the construction crews, and was operating the railroad hotel at Promontory, Utah when the railroad was completed in 1869. At the ceremony on Promontory Summit where engines of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroad touched cowcatchers to symbolize the opening of the transcontinental route, Stanton rode in the UP's engine and rang the engine's bell. Stanton was educated in San Francisco, and then attended
Charles E. Stanton
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and 9th Avenue which is now marked by a gold spike that was used for the promotion of the movie Union Pacific Council Bluffs physical connection to the Transcontinental Railroad was delayed until 1872 when the Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge opened (railroad cars had to be ferried across the Missouri River from Council Bluffs to Omaha in the early days of the Transcontinental). The Chicago and North Western Railway arrived 1867. Other railroads operating in the city came to include the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, Chicago Great Western Railway, Wabash Railroad, Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago, Burlington and
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Milwaukee Depot The Milwaukee Depot in Missoula, Montana, was built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (otherwise known as The Milwaukee Road) in 1910 as part of the railroad's transcontinental "Pacific Extension". The depot complex consists of two buildings, both made of brick. The depot itself is a two-story rectangular building that had passenger waiting rooms and the station agent's office. The second floor contained railroad offices. The depot has two towers that rise above it. There is a Mission influence in the tile roofs and decoration. The second building was the baggage room. When the railroad
Milwaukee Depot
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human geography. Large cities (such as Nairobi) may be founded by a railroad passing through. Historically, when a station has been built outside the town or city it is intended to serve, that town has expanded to include the station, or buildings (especially Inns) sprung up near the station. The existence of a station may increase the number of commuters who live in a town or village and so cause it to become a dormitory town. The transcontinental railroad was a large factor in American colonization of the Western frontier. China's railroad expansion into Tibet may have similar consequences. Rail
Rail transport operations
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Railway, the first transcontinental railroad in the northern United States, announced it would locate its terminus at Commencement Bay. When the railroad reached the bay in 1883 it caused a boom of development in Tacoma. The railroad facilities were located near the extensive tide flats by the mouth of the Puyallup River, about a mile from the original site of Tacoma. Not only did the tide flats provide level ground compared to the steep slopes surrounding the rest of the bay, but dredging work would quickly provide deep water access to the railyards and warehouses. A new town, called New
Commencement Bay
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through the mountains. The resulting financial scandals not only ruined de Lesseps and many investors, it also brought down the French government. The episode then takes up the story seventeen years later when the United States took up the challenge. A concentrated effort succeeded in eradicating the causes of the tropical diseases, but the attempt to build a sea-level canal once again failed. Instead the canal was built with locks. The episode follows the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad, the first transcontinental rail system, which would unite the eastern and western seaboards of the United States. Started in Sacramento
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
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in 1885, built a wooden railroad trestle across the Great Salt Lake between Ogden and Lucin, between February 1902 and March 1904. The Lucin Cutoff completely bypassed Promontory Summit. The last regularly scheduled transcontinental passenger train to pass through Promontory station was on Sunday, September 18, 1904. When the Great Depression led to a dramatic fall in revenues from railroad traffic, the Southern Pacific decided to abandon the line when it failed to meet its operating costs. On September 8, 1942, an "unspiking" ceremony was held to commemorate the lifting of the last rail over Promontory Summit; the old steel
Promontory, Utah
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transcontinental railroad was built, more Chinatowns started to appear in railroad towns such as St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Butte Montana, and many east coast cities such as New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and Baltimore. With the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, many southern states such as Arkansas, Louisiana, and Georgia began to hire Chinese for work in place of slave labor. The history of Chinatowns was not always peaceful, especially when labor disputes arose. Racial tensions flared when lower-paid Chinese workers replaced white miners in many mountain-area Chinatowns, such as in Wyoming with the Rock Springs Massacre. Many
Chinatown
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was the only one. The treaty led the U.S. government to contract for steamship service to Panama from ports on both coasts. When the California Gold Rush began in 1848, traffic through Panama greatly increased, and New Granada agreed to allow the Panama Railroad to be constructed by American interests. This first "transcontinental railroad" opened in 1850. There were riots in Panama City in 1856; several Americans were killed. US warships landed Marines, who occupied the railroad station and kept the railroad service from being interrupted by the unrest. The United States demanded compensation from New Granada, including a zone
Panama Canal Zone
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Williams Depot Williams Depot is a privately owned train station in Williams, Arizona. It is the southern terminus of the Grand Canyon Railway line. The first railroad in Williams was the western division of the transcontinental railroad built by the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in 1882. By 1885 the first station was built in the town. Two years later, the Santa Fe and Grand Canyon Railroad was built to transport supplies and workers between Williams and the copper mines near Anita. In 1901, the SF&GC was sold under foreclosure to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, who completed the
Williams Depot
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Boca and Loyalton Railroad The Boca and Loyalton Railroad was built to serve sawmills in the Sierra Nevada of northern California. It became the Loyalton branch of the Western Pacific Railroad. The Lewis brothers built a standard gauge railway about 1897 from the Southern Pacific early transcontinental line at Boca, California, seventeen miles north to their sawmill in Sardine Valley. The sawmill was moved to Loyalton, California after the Sardine Valley forests were cut, and the rail line was extended to Loyalton as the Boca & Loyalton on 24 September 1900. Several other lumber companies built sawmills in the Loyalton
Boca and Loyalton Railroad
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by New York commodity broker Ross Rowland for use in hauling his "Golden Spike Centennial Limited", a special commemorative train that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1969. Afterwards, the 759 pulled numerous excursions for Ross Rowland and Steamtown until being retired once more and placed back on display in 1977. Today, the locomotive remains on static display at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania. 759 was built in August 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, better known as the
Nickel Plate 759
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Baker, Montana Baker is a city in and the county seat of Fallon County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,741 at the 2010 census. It was named after A. G. Baker, an engineer with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Baker was built along the transcontinental rail line of the Milwaukee Road near where the railroad created a lake to supply water to its steam locomotives. The city was known as Lorraine for a brief time before being renamed in honor of Milwaukee Road engineer A.G. Baker. A successful Milwaukee Land Company campaign to attract homesteaders to
Baker, Montana
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his early interest in photography; his father built him an attic darkroom and his mother introduced him to the works of Peter Beard, whose book, "Eyelids of the Morning", a study of Nile crocodiles on Lake Rudolf, was being published by NYGS. Beard learned of Moore’s interest in photography and signed two prints to him from this series. Moore is related to the Victorian era artists George Cochran Lambdin, known for his paintings of flowers, and Alfred A. Hart, an official photographer for the Central Pacific Railroad, who documented the construction of the western half of the first transcontinental railroad.
Andrew L. Moore
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from Williston that Lucas was finding the best bones and refused to quit Cope to come work for Marsh. Marsh ordered Williston back to Morrison, where Marsh's small quarry collapsed and nearly killed his assistants. This setback would have dried up Marsh's bone supply from the west, if not for receipt of a third letter. At the time of Lakes' discoveries, the First Transcontinental Railroad was being built through a remote area of Wyoming. Marsh's letter was from two men identifying themselves as Harlow and Edwards, workers on the Union Pacific Railroad. Their real names were William Harlow Reed (b.
Bone Wars
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Adams, and Andrew J. Moon, began illegally selling small farm plots west of what is now Market Street. One of the squatters, Horace Carpentier became Oakland's first mayor in 1854. The population grew after 1863, when the San Francisco-Oakland railroad connected central Oakland to the San Francisco bay ferries. In 1869, West Oakland became the terminus of the transcontinental railroad, and the population grew again as railroad workers settled in the neighborhood. In the 1880s and 1890s, a large number of shops and small and medium-sized houses were built to accommodate the large number of European Americans, African Americans, Portuguese,
West Oakland, Oakland, California
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first 2-6-0 built in the United States, in 1863 for the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company. The company continued manufacturing both locomotives and textile machinery for nearly another 20 years. In November 1868 Rogers delivered five identical coal-burning 4-4-0 steam locomotives (assigned Nos. 116–120) to the Union Pacific Railroad, which were subsequently placed into freight service in western Wyoming and Utah. Union Pacific No. 119 would gain fame on May 10, 1869, when it took part in the "Golden Spike" ceremony at Promontory, Utah, to celebrate the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The unit was rebuilt in the
Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works
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Barbara Harrison Wescott Barbara Harrison Wescott (October 27, 1904 – April 8, 1977) was a publisher. She was born on October 27, 1904, the second daughter of Francis Burton Harrison and his first wife Mary Crocker Harrison, an heiress from San Francisco. Mary Crocker Harrison was a granddaughter of Charles Crocker, a self-made multi-millionaire who founded the Central Pacific Railroad and, with three other men, took over Southern Pacific Railroad and built the transcontinental railroad. Barbara Wescott's mother was killed in an automobile accident in 1905 at age 23 when Barbara was barely a year old. According to a 1914
Barbara Harrison Wescott
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1832 when Dr. Hartwell Carver published an article in the "New York Courier & Enquirer" advocating building a transcontinental railroad from Lake Michigan to Oregon. In 1847 he submitted to the U.S. Congress a "Proposal for a Charter to Build a Railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean", seeking a congressional charter to support his idea. Congress agreed to support the idea. Under the direction of the Department of War, the Pacific Railroad Surveys were conducted from 1853 through 1855. These included an extensive series of expeditions of the American West seeking possible routes. A report on the explorations
First Transcontinental Railroad
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built by O'Connor Engineering Laboratories. The engines are fired up periodically by the National Park Service for the public. On May 10, 2006, on the anniversary of the driving of the spike, Utah announced that its state quarter design would be a representation of the driving of the Last Spike. Amtrak's "California Zephyr", a daily passenger service from Emeryville, California (San Francisco Bay Area) to Chicago, uses the First Transcontinental Railroad from Sacramento to central Nevada. Because this rail line currently operates in a directional running setup across most of Nevada, the "California Zephyr" will switch to the Central Corridor
First Transcontinental Railroad
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and the tons of ice needed by the miners as they worked ever deeper into the "hot" Comstock Lode ore body. In the mines, temperatures could get above at the work face and a miner often used over of ice per shift. This new railroad connected to the Central Pacific near Reno, and went through Carson City, the new capital of Nevada. After the transcontinental railroads were completed, many other railroads were built to connect up to other population centers in Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, Colorado, Oregon, Washington territories, etc. In 1869, the Kansas Pacific Railway started building the Hannibal Bridge,
First Transcontinental Railroad
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Fort Fred Steele State Historic Site Fort Steele, also known as Fort Fred Steele, was established to protect the newly built Union Pacific Railroad from attacks by Native Americans during construction of the transcontinental railroad in the United States. The fort was built in 1868 where the railroad crossed the North Platte River in Carbon County, Wyoming. Work on the fort was carried out by military and civilian labor. Fort Steele was one of three forts built on the line. Fort Sanders (originally Fort John Buford) near Laramie and Fort D.A. Russell at Cheyenne were the other railroad forts. Fort
Fort Fred Steele State Historic Site
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whistle. No. 119 was the original locomotive on the Omaha Zoo Railroad and was custom built for the zoo in 1968. It was built by Crown Metal Products of Wyano, Pennsylvania, a company that built replica steam trains for amusement parks and zoos all over the country. In honor of zoo railroad benefactor Union Pacific, the engine was decorated to resemble the Union Pacific's ceremonial engine used at the 1869 completion of the first transcontinental railroad. It is a 4-4-0 type locomotive, meaning that it has four pilot wheels to help guide it through curves, 4 large driving wheels, and
Omaha Zoo Railroad
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Legislature" did not succeed in swaying the Nebraska Territory governor, and the Capitol remained in Omaha until 1867 when Nebraska gained statehood. When Omaha eventually lost the capital to Lincoln in 1867, the city was by then strong enough to maintain economic growth for a period of time. While Council Bluffs was chosen as the eastern terminus of the United States' first transcontinental railroad in 1862 with the passage of the Pacific Railway Act, construction on the railroad began west from Omaha to avoid the difficulties of constructing a bridge across the Missouri River. This ensured that Omaha would become
History of Omaha, Nebraska
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Jupiter (locomotive) The Jupiter (officially known as Central Pacific Railroad #60) was a 4-4-0 steam locomotive which made history as one of the two locomotives (the other being the Union Pacific "No. 119") to meet at Promontory Summit during the Golden Spike ceremony commemorating the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The "Jupiter" was built in September 1868 by the Schenectady Locomotive Works of New York, along with three other engines, numbered 61, 62, and 63, named the "Storm", "Whirlwind", and "Leviathan", respectively. These four engines were then dismantled and sailed to San Francisco, California, where they were loaded onto
Jupiter (locomotive)
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Capitan" spent its last decade crossing the Carquinez Strait between Crockett and Vallejo before being retired in 1925. El Capitan (ferry) El Capitan was a side-wheel steam-powered passenger ferry operated on San Francisco Bay. The ferry was built for the Central Pacific Railroad in 1868 in anticipation of completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The ferry offered connecting service to San Francisco for train passengers arriving in Oakland, California. "El Capitan" collided with the Central Pacific ferry "Alameda" in dense fog on 20 February 1879. The hull flooded from a hole forward of the port side paddle box, and the
El Capitan (ferry)
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the transcontinental railroad in the north. The refinery at Lyons Station was unsuccessful and shut down in 1875, and in 1877 the parts were moved about a mile westward to Andrews Station directly on the railroad line, where a larger refinery was being built. The site of Lyons Station is marked by California Historical Marker NO. 688, sited in front of the Eternal Valley Memorial Park at 23287 North Sierra Highway in Newhall, near California State Route 14 and Newhall Avenue. Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop The Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop, (originally Hart's Station, then Wiley's Station), was a tavern and
Lyons Station Stagecoach Stop
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The road's rail terminus was moved two months later to the Oakland Long Wharf about a mile to the north. Service between San Francisco and Oakland Pier continued to be provided by ferry. The CPRR eventually purchased of UPRR-built grade from Promontory Summit (MP 828) to Ogden, U.T. (MP 881), which became the interchange point between trains of the two roads. The transcontinental line was popularly known as the "Overland Route" after the principal passenger rail service that operated over the length of the line until 1962. Building a railroad line that connected the United States coast-to-coast was advocated in
First Transcontinental Railroad
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bought the rights, raising U.S. fears of British colonization in the hemisphere, in violation of the precepts of the Monroe Doctrine. United States interest in the right-of-way increased in 1848 after the gold strikes in the Sierra Nevada, which led to the California Gold Rush. The Memphis commercial convention of 1849 recommended that the United States pursue the trans-isthmus route, since it appeared unlikely that a transcontinental railroad would be built anytime soon. Interests in Louisiana were especially adamant about this option, as they believed that any transcontinental railroad would divert commercial traffic away from the Mississippi and New Orleans,
Gadsden Purchase
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Big Four (Central Pacific Railroad) "The Big Four" was the name popularly given to the famous and influential businessmen, philanthropists and railroad tycoons who built the Central Pacific Railroad, (C.P.R.R.), which formed the western portion through the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States, built from the mid-continent at the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean during the middle and late 1860s. Composed of Leland Stanford, (1824–1893), Collis Potter Huntington, (1821–1900), Mark Hopkins, (1813–1878), and Charles Crocker, (1822–1888), the four themselves however, personally preferred to be known as "The Associates." Collectively, the
Big Four (Central Pacific Railroad)
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of railroad lines had been built. The B&O's westward route reached the Ohio River in 1852, the first eastern seaboard railroad to do so. Railroad companies in the North and Midwest constructed networks that linked nearly every major city by 1860. The First Transcontinental Railroad in the U.S. was built across North America in the 1860s, linking the railroad network of the eastern U.S. with California on the Pacific coast. Finished on May 10, 1869 at the Golden spike event at Promontory Summit, Utah, it created a nationwide mechanized transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American
Rail transportation in the United States
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Chinese. Emigrants from poverty stricken regions of China, many of which suffered from the strife of the Taiping Rebellion, seemed to be more willing to tolerate the living and working conditions on the railroad construction, and progress on the railroad continued. The increasing necessity for tunneling as they proceeded up the mountains then began to slow progress of the line yet again. The first step of construction was to survey the route and determine the locations where large excavations, tunnels and bridges would be needed. Crews could then start work in advance of the railroad reaching these locations. Supplies and
First Transcontinental Railroad
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corridor of I-40 in Arizona was first surveyed and built between 1857 and 1859. Lt. Edward Beale and his soldiers built the road along the 35th parallel that would come to be known as the Beale Wagon Road from Ft. Smith, Arkansas to the Colorado River to serve as a military wagon road. The road was a popular route for immigrants during the 1860s and 1870s until the transcontinental railroad was built across northern Arizona in the 1880s. In the early 1900s, the road became part of the National Old Trails Road, a transcontinental route from Baltimore, Maryland to California,
Interstate 40 in Arizona
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Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) is a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its demise in 1923, when it was merged into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. CNoR had its start in the independent branchlines that were being constructed in Manitoba in the 1880s and 1890s as a response to the monopoly exercised by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Many of these branchlines were built with the sponsorship of the provincial government, which sought to subsidize local competition to the federally subsidized CPR;
Canadian Northern Railway