The first Pacific Railroad Act was signed by former railroad lawyer, President Abraham Lincoln in 1862.

quot;With the completion of the Central Pacific, many Chinese workers moved to other railroad construction jobs, including some for the Central Pacific. Others returned with their savings to their families in Canton. Others still sent to China for wives and settled in various western communities as laundrymen and restaurateurs. The majority who remained, however, returned to the Pacific Coast.

In part, the answer depends on which "last spike" you mean.

Building the transcontinental railroad was certainly, as Congress intended, a race in the sense of a highly successful business competition, and consequently the best answer as to who won is probably everybody. The railroad was completed years ahead of schedule as a result. At the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, the CPRR was 742 miles long (including 47 1/2 miles purchased and 5 miles leased from the UPRR); and the UPRR was 1,032 miles long.

The first transcontinental railroad was 1776 miles long from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California (an easy American number to remember). The exact mileage varies over time as the railroad line was later realigned to slightly improve the route. You can get a different answer if you instead measure the length from Council Bluffs, Iowa or to Oakland or San Francisco, California, but the above answer is as originally built. A more precise number (to the foot) is on our homepage.

Overall the transcontinental railroad was a hugely positive success for the reasons explained in the FAQ about the railroad's significance. There were, however, some negative aspects that were unfortunate, and others that may be positive or negative, depending on your value judgments: The completion of the transcontinental railroad dramatically decreased the cost of transportation and many commodities that could now be readily obtained and carried to the west coast.

The 1,776 mile long first transcontinental railroad (690 miles built by the Central Pacific Railroad and 1,086 miles built by the Union Pacific Railroad) that started construction in 1863 and was completed with the joining of the rails at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869 went from Omaha, Nebraska (UPRR) to Sacramento, California (CPRR), thereby connecting with other railroads from the east (for example, from Boston and New York via Chicago, Illinois or St.

Lawrence K. Hersh.

This website contains a large amount of 19th century primary source material, including both pictures and historical writings, including some 1865-66 California Newspapers. For help in researching the Central Pacific Railroad, and to locate other sources, in addition to the above institutions, see Library Research Using Primary Sources, Railroad Research Resources, Syracuse University's C. P.

We don't think that there was a single CPRR corporate logo – railroad corporate logo's were not widely or consistently used prior to the 1890's. (John Decker reports that the "[Travelers' Official Guide of the Railway and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States and Canada] ... from September 1881, [has] not a single corporate logo in it ... [while the] edition of June 1893 shows logos galore ... " According to Adrian Ettlinger, "... the Barriger Library in St. Louis ..

See the two Reports sections of the readings, and Railroad Maps Exhibit where there are links to three sets of detailed survey maps from California and Nevada. Theodore Judah's description of the route is included in the 1863 first annual report of the CPRR. Also see the note about the Judah CPRR survey route map at the California State Archives.

Congress deadlocked over whether to use a northern or southern route from 1845 until 1862 with the departure of Southern Senators during the Civil War. Transporting equipment from the East coast by ship (via Panama or around Cape Horn at the tip of South America) for the CPRR. Sierra Nevada blizzards, snow drifts, and avalanches, requiring construction of 37 miles of snowsheds. Hostile Plains Indians, smallpox, the UPRR financial scandal (Credit Mobilier), and corrupt politicians.

The best place to visit is the fabulous California State Railroad Museum at the site of the original depot, the western terminus of the Central Pacific Railroad, at the old Sacramento, California waterfront, created due to the efforts of a group of railroad enthusiasts who in 1937 formed the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society and immediately began gathering historical locomotives and cars for their ultimate goal of a museum celebrating railroading in the Wes.

About 200,000 net tons of iron total were used just for building the railroad from Omaha to Sacramento [at 2000 lbs/net ton, the modern useage, also called the short ton; not using the gross ton unit of weight, also called the long ton, used historically by the CPRR which were 2240 lbs/gross ton; also not the metric ton = 1000 kg ].

quot;For God’s sake, let ... judgment [have] at least a fighting chance to triumph over process." —John C. Bogle

See Computer Basics - Tutorial if a webpage address you were e-mailed gives a "Not Found" error.

The construction dates are very well documented because the issuance of government bonds to the railroads to finance construction was based on miles completed. (For CPRR details, see Galloway, and the table in the report of 1877, and the report of 1883.; the UPRR website has an "End of Track Dateline, 1865-1869" map.) Also see the dates the CPRR was opened for traffic (data from ICC Report, 1916). Newcastle, 31 miles from Sacramento, was reached by June 6, 1864.

While the number is uncertain, probably about 100-150 Chinese died building the railroad (this based on the very specific reports at the time), including some who died in Nevada from smallpox.

You're there now! This is a virtual museum in cyberspace. [Please note that CPRR.org is not located in Moorville, Kansas; and, fortunately, we don't suffer from a common museum malady, the "edifice complex."] We are deeply honored to have the author of what the Wall Street Journal called the "definitive" history of the building of the US transcontinental railroad describe the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum as "the best RR website on the planet.