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

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.

Lawrence K. Hersh.

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

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.

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.

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 ].

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.

The improvements to our wastewater treatment plants take into account projected growth in the City for 40 years. Should our growth exceed the treatment capacity of our expanded and upgraded plants, it will be necessary to do further capital improvements or to explore regional treatment solutions. However, we believe we have planned adequately.

The population of the U.S. was on the road to stabilizing starting in 1970 - in other words, people here had decided on their own to have smaller family sizes and to bring our population growth to a standstill3. Since then, increasing levels of mass immigration are causing our population to grow endlessly. Unless the U.S. Government addresses this issue now, we will someday be like China where the Government must take drastic measures to stabilize population.

There are a variety of transportation options between Anchorage or Fairbanks and the Denali Park Entrance: railroad, motorcoach or shuttle van, or personal vehicle. We operate Denali Cabins just South of the Denali National Park. Please visit our www.denali-cabins.com web site for more details.

Just as the size of the island changes, so does the population. The 1990 Census listed the population of the City of Key West as 24,832. The population for the entire Keys (not all of Monroe county) is listed as 78,024. (Source: Key West Citizen -- Florida Keys Almanac, August 1994 derived from the 1990 Census).

A If a person knows something is bad for him--excessive smoking, or drinking, or gambling--but he continues doing it regardless, we say he appears to be addicted to that destructive behavior. If we know exponential population growth is exacerbating America's societal and environmental problems but we allow it to continue, it suggests to me we are dealing with an addiction.

In 1993 there were 93,600 people in WA with some form of hearing loss and 1,200 people use Auslan in WA as their main mode of communication. In the 2001 Census, people were asked the language used at home. There was no option to identify Auslan users and most people marked English. The majority of Deaf and hard of hearing people communicate with their families in English and communicate with their friends and some family members using Auslan.