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California's symbolic and tangible connection to the rest of the country was fused at Promontory Summit, Utah, as the "last spike" was driven to join the tracks of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads, thereby completing the first transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869 (before that time, only a few local rail lines operated in the ...
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage [1] that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the tracks of a single railroad, or via several railroads owned or controlled by multiple railway companies along a continuous route.
America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route") was a 1,911-mile (3,075 km) continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. [1]
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.
Construction of the road was financed primarily by 30-year, 6% U.S. government bonds authorized by Sec. 5 of the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862.They were issued at the rate of $16,000 ($265,000 in 2017 dollars) per mile of tracked grade completed east of the designated base of the Sierra Nevada range near Roseville, CA where California state geologist Josiah Whitney had determined were the ...
California Historical Landmark No. 780.7 Transcontinental Railroad- Site of Completion of Pacific Railroad [39] at entrance to Mossdale Crossing Park and Ramp, just north of San Joaquin River in Lathrop, California. Plaque is missing. [40] The plaque apparently used September 8, 1869 as date of completion instead of September 6, 1869.
Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, little progress was made in forming a company to construct the railroad line. Some interest remained, because the proposed route was much less steep and passed through the Sierra Nevada at a point 2,000 feet (610 m) lower than that of the recently finished First transcontinental railroad , owned by the Central ...
became California Pacific RR # 178; rebuilt as 4-4-0 in 1872; became Stockton & Copperopolis # 3; then Southern Pacific # 1101; retired 1892 Old Betsy: 2-2-4: purchased 1863 from Market Street Railroad of San Francisco Oakland: Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works: 4-4-0: 1869 became California Pacific RR shop switcher in Sacramento; retired 1877