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.

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.

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 ].

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

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.

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.

The first transcontinental telegraph, established as a result of the Pacific Telegraph Act of 1860, put the Pony Express out of business the day it was completed, Oct. 24, 1861, and provided a critical communication link with the Eastern U.S. needed in order to coordinate the building of the Central Pacific Railroad and to order locomotives, track, and other needed supplies to be shipped by sea to California. Theodore Judah, in Washington, D.C.

There were many routes across North America in 1900 involving the following railroads in the West (in order from North to South): You can see all the western routes on a UPRR railroad map dated 1900 from the Library of Congress (although only the Union Pacific lines are shown in bold). Essentially all the routes contemplated by the 1850's in the Pacific Railroad Surveys were completed by 1893. Also, there were an even greater number of routes from the east coast to the Missouri river.

quot;The expansion of railways through Southern California in the 1880s prompted the calculated promotion of the region as a healthy, comfortable place to make a home. In the middle of the decade, there was even a price war for passenger travel, and fare for a ticket from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific dropped to $25.00.

My history teacher wants my class to do a Utah related topic, and the only info I can find is about the Chinese in California. The reason that you are finding limited information about Chinese railroad workers in Utah is that most of the railroad construction in Utah was done by Mormon contractors instead of Chinese.

You can book your Alaska Railroad trip through Alaska Denali Tours. The Alaska Railroad schedule for summer 2007 is as follows: Please note: If you are traveling from Fairbanks to Denali, the Alaska Railroad makes timely connections with our lodge bus. However, guests traveling northbound from Anchorage by train will require a stay at the Denali National Park entrance the night before coming to the lodge.