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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 quarry man's 'make-do' railroad solution was the continent's first chartered railway, first operational non-temporary railway, first well documented railroad, and first constructed railroad also meant to be permanent. It was perhaps the only railroad replaced by a canal, and also one of the first to close, and of those, perhaps is alone in ...
Ceremony for the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, May 1869, at Promontory Summit, U.T. The Southern states had blocked westward rail expansion before 1860, but after secession the Pacific Railway Acts were passed in 1862 [54] and 1863, which respectively established the central Pacific route and the standard gauge to be used.
1883 – The Northern Pacific Railway links Chicago with Seattle—the fourth U.S. transcontinental railroad. 1883 – The Orient Express, a long-distance passenger train service connecting Paris to Constantinople / Istanbul, was created by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL).
The first concrete plan for a transcontinental railroad in the United States was presented to Congress by Asa Whitney in 1845. [13] A series of transcontinental railroads built over the last third of the 19th century created a nationwide transportation network that united the country by rail.
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 ...
Mark Hopkins Jr. (September 3, 1814 – March 29, 1878) [1] was an American railroad executive. He was one of four principal investors that funded Theodore D. Judah's idea of building a railway over the Sierra Nevada from Sacramento, California to Promontory, Utah.
George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 18, 1904) [1] [2] was an American businessman who organized the clipper ship line that sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco; he also organized the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier in the United States in 1864 to construct the eastern portion of the Transcontinental Railroad, and a horse tramway company in England while there ...