query: when did they finish building the transcontinental railroad

pos: First Transcontinental Railroad which was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River. This in turn connected to Kansas Pacific trains going from Kansas City to Denver, which in turn had built the Denver Pacific Railway connecting to the Union Pacific. In August 1870, the Kansas Pacific drove the last spike connecting to the Denver Pacific line at Strasburg, Colorado and the first true Atlantic to Pacific United States railroad was completed. Kansas City's head start in connecting to a true transcontinental railroad contributed to it rather than Omaha becoming the dominant rail center west of Chicago. The Kansas Pacific became part of

neg: Transcontinental railroad had learned their trade keeping the trains running during the American Civil War. The Central Pacific Railroad faced a labor shortage in the more sparsely settled West. It recruited Cantonese laborers in China, who did prodigious work building the line over and through the Sierra Nevada mountains and then across Nevada to their meeting in northern Utah. George J. Gould attempted to assemble a truly transcontinental system in the 1900s. The line from San Francisco, California, to Toledo, Ohio, was completed in 1909, consisting of the Western Pacific Railway, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Missouri Pacific Railroad, and Wabash Railroad.

neg: Alexander Toponce their efforts to suppress rampant crime. He apparently did not witness the execution of George Ives, but heard much about it. Then, having disposed of his goods and most of his teams, he headed south again. While Toponce took no part in the hangings, he considered them necessary. In fact, in his "Reminiscences", he stated categorically that they had not done enough. He said that fully half of those who were only banished should have also been hung right then. In fact, many were hung later, when they began to prey on crews building the transcontinental railroad. After a tough

neg: Alexander Majors rise, Majors and his colleagues proposed to deliver the mail over a central route through Salt Lake City, Utah and proposed doing it in 10 days via a horse relay called the Pony Express. Even though they succeeded in making the deliveries, they did not get the contract. They went bankrupt after the Transcontinental Telegraph opened in October 1861, as its competition eliminated the need for some mail service. He provided rail ties for the crews of the Union Pacific Railroad working on the First Transcontinental Railroad. After the railroad was completed, he continued to haul freight to towns not

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad 1832 when Dr. Hartwell Carver published an article in the "New York Courier & Enquirer" advocating building a transcontinental railroad from Lake Michigan to Oregon. In 1847 he submitted to the U.S. Congress a "Proposal for a Charter to Build a Railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean", seeking a congressional charter to support his idea. Congress agreed to support the idea. Under the direction of the Department of War, the Pacific Railroad Surveys were conducted from 1853 through 1855. These included an extensive series of expeditions of the American West seeking possible routes. A report on the explorations

neg: Rail transport in Costa Rica Materials and equipment were brought into Alajuela from Puntarenas by oxen-powered carts. Due to a shortage of finances and natural obstacles (especially around Río Sucio), the construction of the remaining sections was delayed, and the entire line did not become operational until December 7, 1890. A contract for the building of the Pacific Railroad was signed in 1897, but again, the enterprise faced natural, financial and political difficulties. The Pacific Railroad was officially launched on July 23, 1910, when the first engine, "Maria Cecilia", departed from Puntarenas to San José with passengers and cargo. The transcontinental railway from Limon to

neg: Golden spike earthquake. Although the Promontory event marked the completion of the transcontinental railroad line, it did not actually mark the completion of a seamless coast-to-coast rail network: neither Sacramento nor Omaha was a seaport, nor did they have rail connections until after they were designated as the termini. The Mossdale Bridge, which was the final section across the San Joaquin River near Lathrop, California, was finally completed in September 1869 connecting Sacramento in California. Passengers were required to cross the Missouri River between Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska, by boat until the building of the Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge

neg: Chesapeake and Ohio Railway had only about five miles (8 km) of track still in operation, and $40 in gold in its treasury. Following the war, Virginia Central officials, led by company president Williams Carter Wickham, realized that they would have to get capital to rebuild from outside the economically devastated South, and attempted to attract British interests, without success. Finally they succeeded in interesting Collis P. Huntington of New York. Huntington had been one of the "Big Four" involved in building the Central Pacific portion of the Transcontinental Railroad, which was just reaching completion. Huntington had a vision of a true transcontinental railroad

neg: New Mexican Railway Company granted lands and construction privileges for the First Transcontinental Railroad project under the Pacific Railway Acts. Construction of this Overland Route was begun in 1863 and completed in 1869. The southern route did not become a reality until 1883, when the Southern Pacific Railroad linked New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico with Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. The Memorial document is an attempt to persuade the U.S. Congress to authorize construction of the first Transcontinental Railroad via a southern route through New Mexico rather than the route that was eventually authorized by the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862

neg: Samuel S. Montague time of Judah's death in 1863. Samuel S. Montague (often called S. S. Montague) was appointed Chief Engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1863 after the death of Theodore Judah. He was responsible for building the western half of the First Transcontinental Railroad. He was a confidant of Leland Stanford the founder of Stanford University, governor of California and one of the "big four" who directed the Central Pacific Railroad. Samuel was one of Stanford's "inner circle". He was the engineer charged with directing the locating, designing and building the western section of the transcontinental railroad that linked the

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad and the tons of ice needed by the miners as they worked ever deeper into the "hot" Comstock Lode ore body. In the mines, temperatures could get above at the work face and a miner often used over of ice per shift. This new railroad connected to the Central Pacific near Reno, and went through Carson City, the new capital of Nevada. After the transcontinental railroads were completed, many other railroads were built to connect up to other population centers in Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, Colorado, Oregon, Washington territories, etc. In 1869, the Kansas Pacific Railway started building the Hannibal Bridge,

neg: Durant, Polk County, Nebraska In real life the Indian attack was much worse with the Indians raping and killing all the women and men. When finished they took all the whiskey and firearms before burning everything in sight. Durant, Polk County, Nebraska Durant is an unincorporated community in Polk County, Nebraska, in the United States. Durant was established when the Union Pacific Railroad was extended to that point, during the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad. A town called Durant, Nebraska features at the end of season 1 and the beginning of season 2 of the AMC-TV series "Hell on Wheels". A nod to

neg: Transcontinental railroad united the country by rail. The first of these, the "Pacific Railroad", was built by the Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad to link the San Francisco Bay at Alameda, California, with the nation's existing eastern railroad network at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska, thereby creating the world's first transcontinental railroad when it opened in 1869. Its construction was made possible by the US government under Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862, 1864, and 1867. The world's First Transcontinental Railroad was built between 1863 and 1869 to join the eastern and western halves of the United States. Begun just before the

neg: Gadsden Purchase and the Civil War delayed construction of the proposed railroad. The Southern Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles reached Yuma, Arizona, in 1877, Tucson in March 1880, Deming, New Mexico in December 1880, and El Paso in May 1881, the first railroad across the Gadsden Purchase. At the same time, 1879-1881, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was building across New Mexico and met the Southern Pacific at Deming, New Mexico March 7, 1881, completing the second transcontinental railroad (the first, the central transcontinental, was completed May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah). Acquiring trackage rights over the SP, from

neg: Milwaukee Depot Milwaukee Depot The Milwaukee Depot in Missoula, Montana, was built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (otherwise known as The Milwaukee Road) in 1910 as part of the railroad's transcontinental "Pacific Extension". The depot complex consists of two buildings, both made of brick. The depot itself is a two-story rectangular building that had passenger waiting rooms and the station agent's office. The second floor contained railroad offices. The depot has two towers that rise above it. There is a Mission influence in the tile roofs and decoration. The second building was the baggage room. When the railroad

neg: Transcontinental railroad above with standard gauge . Since 1970, when the direct standard gauge line across the country was completed, the passenger train on the Sydney to Perth line has been called the Indian Pacific. The proposed Iron Boomerang would connect iron in the Pilbara with coal in Queensland, so achieving loaded operations in both directions. Transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad of San Francisco. The Central Pacific hired some Canadian and British engineers and surveyors with extensive experience building railroads, but it had a difficult time finding semi-skilled labor. Most Caucasians in California preferred to work in the mines or agriculture. The railroad experimented by hiring local emigrant Chinese as manual laborers, many of whom were escaping the poverty and terrors of the Taiping Rebellion in the Guangdong province in China. When they proved themselves as workers, the CPRR from that point forward preferred to hire Chinese, and even set up recruiting efforts in Canton. Despite their small stature and lack

neg: Transcontinental railroad they also formed the backbones of cross-country passenger and freight transportation networks. A transcontinental railroad in the United States is any continuous rail line connecting a location on the U.S. Pacific coast with one or more of the railroads of the nation's eastern trunk line rail systems operating between the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers and the U.S. Atlantic coast. The first concrete plan for a transcontinental railroad in the United States was presented to Congress by Asa Whitney in 1845. A series of transcontinental railroads built over the last third of the 19th century created a nationwide transportation network that

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad were in supervisory or skilled craft positions and made more money than the Chinese. Most of the early work on the Central Pacific consisted of constructing the railroad track bed, cutting and/or blasting through or around hills, filling in washes, building bridges or trestles, digging and blasting tunnels and then laying the rails over the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) mountains. Once the Central Pacific was out of the Sierras and the Carson Range, progress sped up considerably as the railroad bed could be built over nearly flat ground. In those days, the Central Pacific once did a section of of track

neg: San Francisco and Alameda Railroad When the Central Pacific Railroad took over the SF&A, other locomotives were brought in and the three SF&A locomotives were sent elsewhere on the CP system. On November 14, 1869, the first major railroad accident in California occurred east of Simpson's. The morning eastbound transcontinental train left Oakland Pier, but was delayed. The morning inbound SF&A local left Hayward, but was delayed also. They were scheduled to pass at Simpson's, which was in a heavy fog area that morning. The transcontinental train arrived at Simpson's first and had a confused exchange with the switchman. Assuming that the local had already

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad of Colorado. The Kansas Pacific Railroad linked with the Denver Pacific Railway via Denver to Cheyenne in 1870. The original transcontinental railroad route did not pass through the two biggest cities in the so-called Great American Desert—Denver, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah. Feeder railroad lines were soon built to service these two and other cities and states along the route. Modern-day Interstate 80 roughly follows the path of the railroad from Sacramento across modern day California, Nevada, Wyoming and Nebraska, with a few exceptions. Most significantly, the two routes are different between Wells, Nevada and Echo, Utah. In this

neg: Kansas Pacific Railway Kansas Pacific Railway The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontinental railroad was being constructed by the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific, it tried and failed to join the transcontinental ranks. It was originally the "Union Pacific, Eastern Division", although it was completely independent. The Pennsylvania railroad, working with Missouri financiers, designed it as a feeder line to the transcontinental system. The owners lobbied heavily in Washington

neg: Peninsula Extension Transcontinental Railroad, which was at that time just reaching completion. Under the new leadership and financing, during 1869–1873 the hard work of building through West Virginia was done with large crews working from both ends, much in the manner the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad had been built to complete their transcontinental rails. The final spike ceremony for the long line from Richmond to the Ohio River was held on January 29, 1873 at Hawks Nest railroad bridge in New River Gorge, near the town of Ansted, West Virginia. Virginia's long dream for the C&O had been

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad frontier mayor to have the railroad routed through his town. The popular British television show "Doctor Who" featured the Transcontinental Railroad in a BBC audio book entitled "The Runaway Train", read by Matt Smith and written for audio by Oli Smith. The children's book "Ten Mile Day" by Mary Ann Fraser tells the story of the record setting push by the Central Pacific in which they set a record by laying of track in a single day on April 28, 1869, to settle a $10,000 bet. The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad provides the setting for the AMC television series

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad site. The Union Pacific Railroad did not start construction for another 18 months until July 1865. They were delayed by difficulties obtaining financial backing and the unavailability of workers and materials due to the Civil War. Their start point in the new city of Omaha, Nebraska was not yet connected via railroad to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Equipment needed to begin work was initially delivered to Omaha and Council Bluffs by paddle steamers on the Missouri River. The Union Pacific was so slow in beginning construction during 1865 that they sold two of the four steam locomotives they had purchased. After

neg: Taishanese people of the five continents including US, Canada, Hong Kong, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Malaysia, and Singapore. Taishanese have had a large influence in the course of Asian-American history, as they were the first Asian Americans to be elected as Governors, Mayors, and U.S congressmen in the continental United States. The first international celebrity of Asian descent, and America's first ace in World War II. They also represented the largest Asian community in America and made a significant contribution in building the First Transcontinental Railroad of United States. The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) is the former name of the railroad network built

neg: Milwaukee Railroad Depot (Alberton, Montana) Milwaukee Railroad Depot (Alberton, Montana) The Milwaukee Railroad Depot in Alberton, Montana was built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (a.k.a. Milwaukee Road) in 1908, during its Pacific Extension from Chicago, Illinois to Tacoma, Washington from 1906-09. The depot is a rectangular one-story wood frame building constructed in the Craftsman style. When the Milwaukee Road built its transcontinental line, it placed a division point at Alberton. In addition to the depot, there were also a roundhouse, turntable and locomotive repair shops. The depot became the center of the commercial district of the town and the railroad was

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad of the line's construction. In the 1999 Will Smith film, "Wild Wild West", the joining ceremony is the setting of an assassination attempt on then U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant by the film's antagonist Dr. Arliss Loveless. The building of the railway is covered by the 2004 BBC documentary series "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World" in episode 6, "The Line". The series "American Experience" also documents the railway in the episode titled "Transcontinental Railroad". The main character in "The Claim" (2000) is a surveyor for the Central Pacific Railroad, and the film is partially about the efforts of a

neg: Empire Express the railroad on the Plains Indians, whose traditional way of life was eradicated by the line. He also deals with the imported Chinese workers, the "Celestials", who became known for their tenacity and work ethic. Empire Express Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad is a book written by David Haward Bain, published in 2000. It follows the initial conception of the idea of a transcontinental railroad, during the two decades before the Civil War, to the work of the engineers and entrepreneurs who fixed the route, assembled financing, drafted a work force and launched the two lines toward the

neg: Ames Monument Phil Roberts. President Abraham Lincoln reportedly told Oakes Ames that if he could get the transcontinental railroad built then he would be "the most remembered man of the century." Lincoln personally recruited Oakes after progress by and financial support for Credit Mobilier of America, the construction company charged with building the railroad, ground to a halt. The Ames brothers succeeded where others failed and completed the transcontinental railway. However, in 1873 charges of financial fraud were leveled at Oakes, tarnishing his and the Union Pacific Railroad Company's reputation. Public outcry towards Oakes and other "Kings of Frauds" associated with scandal

neg: Big Four House of the First Transcontinental Railroad linking California with the Eastern U.S. — and were Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Jr., Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker. On the second floor these buildings they organized and ran the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, to plan, build, and operate the western section of the first Transcontinental Railroad. They also founded the Southern Pacific Railroad here. Huntington, Hopkins & Co., which imported and sold hardware, iron, steel, and coal, occupied 54 "K" Street. The second floor of these structures served as the first offices of the Central Pacific Railroad from 1862 to 1873. By

neg: Herndon House city. On December 2, 1863 the hotel hosted a massive celebration, including a banquet and ball, for the first construction related to the development of the First Transcontinental Railroad, which began in Omaha. By 1868 the building was billed as the International Hotel. In May 1867 eccentric railroad promoter George Francis Train was staying at the Herndon House when a windstorm hit the building. Train requested an African American steward in the hotel to stand with his back to the window he was sitting by, fearing the wind would blow it in and expecting the steward to block the glass

neg: History of Seattle he built the church, doing much of the work himself, and in 1869 he opened Seattle’s first Catholic church at Third Avenue and Washington Street, on the site where the present-day Prefontaine Building stands. On July 14, 1873 the Northern Pacific Railway announced that they had chosen the then-village of Tacoma over Seattle as the Western terminus of their transcontinental railroad. The railroad barons appear to have been gambling on the advantage they could gain from being able to buy up the land around their terminus cheaply instead of bringing the railroad into a more established Pacific port town. Seattle

neg: McCord-Brady Company by the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, making it an important transportation center from its inception. Therefore, its commercial history was inextricably tied to the railroad. The building at 1506 Thomes Avenue was constructed in ca. 1914-15 and was provided with its own railroad siding on the south side, which has been removed. The Colorado and Southern Railroad laid tracks along the north side of the building; these have also been removed. However, the Union Pacific Railroad freight yards are located directly south of West Fifteenth Street, so that the building retains its physical association with the railroad. The

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad the Union Pacific in 1880. On June 4, 1876, an express train called the "Transcontinental Express" arrived in San Francisco via the First Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after it had left New York City. Only ten years before, the same journey would have taken months over land or weeks on ship, possibly all the way around South America. The Central Pacific got a direct route to San Francisco when it was merged with the Southern Pacific Railroad to create the Southern Pacific Company in 1885. The Union Pacific initially took over the Southern Pacific in 1901

neg: Asa Whitney no matter how hard he tried, his plan was never accepted, and he stopped campaigning in 1851. Asa Whitney lived long enough to see his dream become a reality; he was alive when the first transcontinental railroad was completed. He died in 1874, five years after the golden spike was laid. Although Whitney’s plan fell through, word began spreading of the idea of a transcontinental railroad. His plan inspired many young, ambitious engineers, one of which being Theodore Judah, a man who helped make the dream of a transcontinental railroad into a reality. Asa Whitney Asa Whitney (1797-1874) was a

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad the wheel trucks. Alternatively, cargo was offloaded and reloaded, a time-consuming effort that delayed cargo shipments. For the transcontinental railroad, the builders adopted the English standard, what is now called standard gauge. The Bessemer process and open hearth furnace steel-making were in use by 1865, but the advantages of steel rails which lasted much longer than iron rails had not yet been demonstrated. The rails used initially in building the rail way were nearly all made of iron of a flat-bottomed modified I-beam profile weighing per or per . The railroad companies were intent on completing the project as rapidly

neg: Red Desert (Wyoming) to South Pass City. There are segments of the Oregon, California, Mormon, and Pony Express trails, along with and archeological and fossil artifacts. A westward-looking nation in 1869 united its eastern and western shores with the First Transcontinental Railroad, whose route traversed the Red Desert. University of Wyoming historian Phil Roberts described the notion of building a transcontinental railroad as "today's equivalent of the mission to Mars: Big, expensive and impossible". The preliminary survey for the railroad produced the first map of the Great Basin and Southern Wyoming, according to author Stephen E. Ambrose. The Red Desert's lack of water

neg: Presidency of Franklin Pierce United States Capitol and building of the Washington Monument. The Army Corps of Engineers surveyed four possible transcontinental railroad routes, all of which would eventually be used by railroads. Davis favored the most Southern railroad route, which extended from New Orleans to San Diego, and his opposition to more Northern routes helped ensure that the construction of a transcontinental railroad would not begin until after Pierce left office. Pierce sought to run a more efficient and accountable government than his predecessors. His cabinet members implemented an early system of civil service examinations which was a forerunner to the Pendleton Act

neg: Central Pacific Railroad Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail route between California and Utah built eastwards from the West Coast in the 1860s, to complete the western part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It later became part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the energy consumed by political disputes over slavery. With the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican Party controlled the US Congress. They passed legislation authorizing the railroad, with financing in the form of government railroad bonds. These

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad than one degree average. This "new" route had never become an emigrant route because it lacked the water and grass to feed the emigrants' oxen and mules. Steam locomotives did not need grass, and the railroad companies could drill wells for water if necessary. Coal had been discovered in Wyoming and reported on by John C. Frémont in his 1843 expedition across Wyoming, and was already being exploited by Utah residents from towns like Coalville, Utah and later Kemmerer, Wyoming by the time the Transcontinental railroad was built. Union Pacific needed coal to fuel its steam locomotives on the almost

neg: Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881) slighted by Union Pacific officials who had decided not to build the railroad through Salt Lake. "We want [the railroad] in this city where it belongs," he said on one occasion to the Mormons in Salt Lake, "the attempt to carry it in that [north] direction is an insult to the people of this city, for in so doing they have tried to shun us." Consequently, Brigham Young formed his own company, the Utah Central Railroad, in order to connect Salt Lake to the Transcontinental Railroad in Ogden, forty miles to the north. Brigham Young did not attend the grand

neg: Transcontinental railroad construction of a transcontinental railroad strengthened the connection of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories to the Dominion of Canada they had recently joined, and acted as a bulwark against potential incursions by the United States. Subsequently, two other transcontinental lines were built in Canada: the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) opened another line to the Pacific in 1912, and the combined Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR)/National Transcontinental Railway (NTR) system opened in 1917 following the completion of the Quebec Bridge, although its line to the Pacific opened in 1914. The CNoR, GTPR, and NTR were nationalized to form the Canadian

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad "Hell on Wheels". Thomas Durant is a regular character in the series and is portrayed by actor Colm Meaney. In 2015, a Lego model depicting the Golden Spike Ceremony, the event that symbolically marked the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, was submitted to the Lego Ideas website. In the 2002 DreamWorks Animation movie, "", the main character, the horse Spirit, is delivered with other horses to pull a steam locomotive at a work site for the Transcontinental Railroad. For maps and railroad pictures of this era shortly after the advent of photography see: First Transcontinental Railroad The First Transcontinental

neg: Transcontinental railroad Transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad is a contiguous network of railroad trackage that crosses a continental land mass with terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single railroad, or over those owned or controlled by multiple railway companies along a continuous route. Although Europe is crisscrossed by railways, the railroads within Europe are usually not considered transcontinental, with the possible exception of the historic Orient Express. Transcontinental railroads helped open up unpopulated interior regions of continents to exploration and settlement that would not otherwise have been feasible. In many cases

neg: Asa Whitney Asa Whitney Asa Whitney (1797-1874) was a highly successful dry-goods merchant and transcontinental railroad promoter. He was one of the first backers of an American transcontinental railway. A trip to China in 1842-44 impressed upon Whitney the need for a transcontinental railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When Whitney returned to the United States in 1844, he realized the benefits from such an undertaking, and spent a great deal of money trying to get the Congress to take up the project. In 1849, he published A Project for a Railroad to the Pacific. For years he continued to write

neg: Francis E. Warren Air Force Base the transcontinental railroad. This included a military installation on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in the Wyoming Territory, to protect Union Pacific workers from "hostile Indians". From these pioneer origins, the base evolved from a frontier infantry and cavalry post into the largest, most modern strategic missile facility in the U.S. Warren AFB is named in honor of Wyoming's first United States Senator, Francis Emroy Warren (1844–1929), who was awarded the Medal of Honor at age 19 during the American Civil War. When President Lincoln and Congress set plans for the transcontinental railroad, they recognized the need for

neg: Gasconade Bridge train disaster a temporary hospital to treat the wounded. The Irish at Miller’s Landing (renamed New Haven, MO in 1856) were complemented for their hospitality. Scavengers arrived at the wreck site the next day and carried off anything of value. Surviving cars from the wreck and the locomotive and tender were brought to Jefferson City by ferry boat. A Pacific Railroad train did eventually reach Jefferson City four months later, but St. Louis' plan to be the starting point of the transcontinental railroad was unsuccessful. In 1869, the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah, stretching from San Francisco to

neg: Ferries of San Francisco Bay integral part of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The earliest railroad ferries ran from Oakland Point and from Alameda Terminal when Alameda was still a peninsula. The ferry pier at Oakland Point was greatly enlarged to form the Oakland Long Wharf. These railroad ferries mostly carried passengers, not trains, although there was some ferrying of freight cars to San Francisco. When the Central Pacific re-routed the Sacramento to Oakland segment of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1876, a ferry across the Carquinez Strait was established, and the world's largest ferryboat, the Solano was built (later joined by a sister ferry, the slightly

neg: Charles Crocker The Big Four), who formed the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the western portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in North America. His position with the company was that of construction supervisor and president of Charles Crocker & Co., a Central Pacific subsidiary founded expressly for the purpose of building the railroad. Crocker bought train plows to plow the tracks of snow through the mountains, but they derailed due to ice on the tracks. He had more than of snow sheds built to cover the tracks in the Sierra Nevada mountains, to prevent the tracks from getting covered with snow

neg: Central Pacific Railroad 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1876 1877 1883 1885 1888 1899 1959 Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail route between California and Utah built eastwards from the West Coast in the 1860s, to complete the western part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It later became part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the energy consumed by political disputes over slavery. With the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican Party controlled the US Congress. They passed legislation authorizing

neg: Charles E. Stanton 1858. As a boy he was raised in part along the roadbed of the Union Pacific Railroad during its construction as part of the First Transcontinental Railroad; his father ran businesses that catered to the construction crews, and was operating the railroad hotel at Promontory, Utah when the railroad was completed in 1869. At the ceremony on Promontory Summit where engines of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroad touched cowcatchers to symbolize the opening of the transcontinental route, Stanton rode in the UP's engine and rang the engine's bell. Stanton was educated in San Francisco, and then attended

neg: Council Bluffs, Iowa and 9th Avenue which is now marked by a gold spike that was used for the promotion of the movie Union Pacific Council Bluffs physical connection to the Transcontinental Railroad was delayed until 1872 when the Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge opened (railroad cars had to be ferried across the Missouri River from Council Bluffs to Omaha in the early days of the Transcontinental). The Chicago and North Western Railway arrived 1867. Other railroads operating in the city came to include the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, Chicago Great Western Railway, Wabash Railroad, Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago, Burlington and

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad First Transcontinental Railroad The First Transcontinental Railroad (also called the Great Transcontinental Railroad, known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Construction was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds. The Western

neg: Maritime history of California of the cargoes that were usually profitable were food, liquor, lumber and building supplies. Ship loads of other types of goods sometimes saturated the marketplace, forcing the goods to be auctioned off at a loss. Most cargoes included a variety of goods to minimize this problem. When the Central Pacific Railroad started construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1863, all their locomotives, box cars, rails and railroad supplies were shipped via this route. It was slow, but a ship going around Cape Horn to California could carry high weight and high volume products cheaper than any other route. Nearly

neg: Commencement Bay Railway, the first transcontinental railroad in the northern United States, announced it would locate its terminus at Commencement Bay. When the railroad reached the bay in 1883 it caused a boom of development in Tacoma. The railroad facilities were located near the extensive tide flats by the mouth of the Puyallup River, about a mile from the original site of Tacoma. Not only did the tide flats provide level ground compared to the steep slopes surrounding the rest of the bay, but dredging work would quickly provide deep water access to the railyards and warehouses. A new town, called New

neg: Empire Express Empire Express Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad is a book written by David Haward Bain, published in 2000. It follows the initial conception of the idea of a transcontinental railroad, during the two decades before the Civil War, to the work of the engineers and entrepreneurs who fixed the route, assembled financing, drafted a work force and launched the two lines toward the eventual meeting point at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869. The story alternates between the Union Pacific driving west from Omaha and the Central Pacific blasting through the mountains from California. Bain examines the impact of

neg: Fort Kearny fort's final duties was the protection of workers building the Union Pacific. In 1871, two years after the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the fort was discontinued as a military post. Its buildings were disassembled and moved West to outfit newer posts. The fort was intended mostly as a supply post, and not as defensive position in the Indian Wars. Throughout most of its history, the fort consisted mostly of wooden buildings surrounding a central parade ground without fortified walls. Throughout the decades of its use until the completion of the transcontinental railroad, the character of the buildings became slightly

neg: The Iron Moonhunter The Iron Moonhunter The Iron Moonhunter () is a short children's picture book published in 1977, written and illustrated by the activist Kathleen Chang. The book purportedly retells a Chinese-American myth set in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad, starting in the fall of 1866. Chinese laborers that were hired to work in America received a hostile reception upon their arrival in San Francisco. While building the Central Pacific portion of the Transcontinental Railroad, an explosion set by rivals killed several Chinese workers. The three Kwan cousins (Kwan Ming, Kwan Cheong, and Kwan Hop)

neg: Gadsden Purchase agricultural South, and town residents and business owners, who were largely Republicans from the industrial Northeast and Midwest. The tension culminated in what has been called the Cochise County feud, and the Earp-Clanton feud, which ended with the historic Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Wyatt Earp's Vendetta Ride. In 1846, James Gadsden, then president of the South Carolina Railroad, proposed building a transcontinental railroad linking the Atlantic at Charleston with the Pacific at San Diego. Federal and private surveys by Lt. John G. Parke and Andrew B Gray proved the feasibility of the southern transcontinental route, but sectional strife

neg: American frontier the 20th century, both tourists to the West and avid readers enjoyed the visual imagery of the frontier. The Western movies provided the most famous examples, as in the numerous films of John Ford. He was especially enamored of Monument Valley. Critic Keith Phipps says, "its have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West." The heroic stories coming out of the building of the transcontinental railroad in the mid-1860s enlivened many dime novels, and illustrated many newspapers and magazines with the juxtaposition of traditional environment with the iron horse of modernity. The cowboy has

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad that it would have trouble maintaining an open track in winter across the Sierras. At first they tried plowing the road with special snowplows mounted on their steam engines. When this was only partially successful, an extensive process of building snow sheds over some of the track was instituted to protect it from deep snows and avalanches. These eventually succeeded at keeping the tracks clear for all but a few days of the year. Both railroads soon instituted extensive upgrade projects to build better bridges, viaducts and dugways as well as install heavier duty rails, stronger ties, better road beds

neg: Charles Crocker (de Limur). Charles Crocker Charles Crocker (September 16, 1822 – August 14, 1888) was an American railroad executive who was one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the westernmost portion of the first transcontinental railroad, and took control with partners of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Crocker was born in Troy, New York on September 16, 1822. He was the son of Eliza (née Wright) and Isaac Crocker, a modest family. They joined the nineteenth-century migration west and moved to Indiana when he was 14, where they had a farm. Crocker soon became independent, working on several

neg: Charles Crocker Charles Crocker Charles Crocker (September 16, 1822 – August 14, 1888) was an American railroad executive who was one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the westernmost portion of the first transcontinental railroad, and took control with partners of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Crocker was born in Troy, New York on September 16, 1822. He was the son of Eliza (née Wright) and Isaac Crocker, a modest family. They joined the nineteenth-century migration west and moved to Indiana when he was 14, where they had a farm. Crocker soon became independent, working on several farms, a

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad they realized that the so-called "Iron Horse" threatened their existence. Security measures were further strengthened, and progress on the railroad continued. Six years after the groundbreaking, laborers of the Central Pacific Railroad from the west and the Union Pacific Railroad from the east met at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. It was here on May 10, 1869, that Leland Stanford drove "The Last Spike" (or golden spike) that joined the rails of the transcontinental railroad. The spike is now on display at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, while a second "Last" Golden Spike is also on display at the

neg: Morgan Jones (railroad builder) First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. In 1876 he was hired by Grenville Dodge, then at the Texas & Pacific Railway, to finish an extension project into Fort Worth. He brought the construction in on time, within a strict deadline from the state legislature, and was hailed as a local hero for the timely completion. Jones went on to build and operate hundreds of miles of railroad, mostly in Texas, mostly without land subsidies. He was president of the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway, one of his most successful projects. He was also director of the Wichita Valley Railway Company.

neg: Rail transportation in the United States first transcontinental railroad was the culmination of a decades-long movement to build such a line and was one of the crowning achievements of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, completed four years after his death. The building of the railroad required enormous feats of engineering and labor in the crossing of plains and high mountains by the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and Central Pacific Railroad, the two federally chartered enterprises that built the line westward and eastward respectively. The building of the railroad was motivated in part to bind the Union together during the strife of the American Civil War. It

neg: William A. H. Loveland became an enthusiastic promoter of building a railroad west of Golden through the Rocky Mountains, with the idea that Golden would become a great railroad metropolis of the region. In the early 1860s he began purchasing right-of-way in the canyon west of Golden. In 1864, he helped found the Colorado, Clear Creek and Pacific Railway (later Colorado Central Railroad) with the intention of building a rail line the mining communities, and connecting it to the transcontinental railroad that was to be built to the north across present-day Wyoming. Loveland's early efforts to build a railroad were hampered by a lack

neg: History of California of whom became famous. Following the split in the Democratic Party in 1860, Republican supporters of Lincoln took control of the state in 1861, minimizing the influence of the large southern population. Their great success was in obtaining a Pacific railroad land grant and authorization to build the Central Pacific as the western half of the transcontinental railroad. California was settled primarily by Midwestern and Southern farmers, miners, and businessmen. Though the southerners and some Californios tended to favor the Confederacy, the state did not have slavery, and they were generally powerless during the war itself. They were prevented from

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad The road's rail terminus was moved two months later to the Oakland Long Wharf about a mile to the north. Service between San Francisco and Oakland Pier continued to be provided by ferry. The CPRR eventually purchased of UPRR-built grade from Promontory Summit (MP 828) to Ogden, U.T. (MP 881), which became the interchange point between trains of the two roads. The transcontinental line was popularly known as the "Overland Route" after the principal passenger rail service that operated over the length of the line until 1962. Building a railroad line that connected the United States coast-to-coast was advocated in

neg: Heroes of the West (1932 film) Heroes of the West (1932 film) Heroes of the West (1932) is a Universal Pre-Code movie serial that depicts the dangers and thrills of building a transcontinental railroad. This was the 82nd serial (and the 14th serial with sound) to be released by Universal. John Blaine – helped by his teenaged son and daughter, Noah and Ann – work to build a section of a transcontinental railroad "through the heart of the wild and wooly west." Their section threads through Wyoming territory, dangerously close to hostile Indians. In addition to tribulations inherent in the Old West, work is hindered by

neg: History of Omaha, Nebraska Legislature" did not succeed in swaying the Nebraska Territory governor, and the Capitol remained in Omaha until 1867 when Nebraska gained statehood. When Omaha eventually lost the capital to Lincoln in 1867, the city was by then strong enough to maintain economic growth for a period of time. While Council Bluffs was chosen as the eastern terminus of the United States' first transcontinental railroad in 1862 with the passage of the Pacific Railway Act, construction on the railroad began west from Omaha to avoid the difficulties of constructing a bridge across the Missouri River. This ensured that Omaha would become

neg: Union Station (Ogden, Utah) to place a glass over the uncovered portion for visitors to see. The Butterfly Canopy and platforms are host to Union Pacific's Steam Team during their east–west trips over the Transcontinental Railroad route and the former Rio Grande Soldier Summit route. The operating water column at the north end, which is connected to the Ogden City water line, allows the steam locomotives to be serviced conveniently. The laundry operations at Union Station date to 1906, when they were carried out in the commissary building (now demolished, on the site of the current Spencer S. & Dolores Dore’ Eccles Rail Center).

neg: Thomas Underwood Thomas Underwood Thomas Underwood (May 6, 1863 – May 10, 1948) was a building developer and the 13th mayor of Calgary, Alberta. Born in Asfordby, Leicestershire, England in 1863, Underwood emigrated to Canada when he was 20. A carpenter by trade, he arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1883. At first, he worked as a farm hand. Two years later, he joined a Canadian Pacific Railway construction gang and was working in Craigellachie, British Columbia at the time of the last spike was driven to complete the transcontinental railroad. After the railroad was completed, he settled in Calgary. Underwood spent the

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad treeless plains across Nebraska and Wyoming. Coal shipments by rail were also looked on as a potentially major source of income—this potential is still being realized. The Union Pacific reached the new railroad town of Cheyenne in December 1867, having laid about that year. They paused over the winter, preparing to push the track over Evans (Sherman's) pass. At , Evans/Sherman's pass is the highest point reached on the transcontinental railroad. About beyond Evans/Sherman's pass, the railroad had to build an extensive bridge over the Dale Creek canyon (41.103803, −105.454797, lat., long.). The Dale Creek Crossing was one of their

neg: Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881) Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881) The Utah Central Railroad was the first railroad in the U.S. state of Utah other than the main line of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Built by Mormons, it connected Salt Lake City to the transcontinental line at Ogden. It has since become part of the Union Pacific Railroad, which operates the line as the Salt Lake Subdivision; "FrontRunner" commuter rail tracks were added alongside the UP freight line in 2008. The company was incorporated in 1869, and completed the line in January 1870. At the time the First Transcontinental Railroad was being built, Brigham Young felt

neg: David Eccles (businessman) He lived in both Eden and Liberty, Utah. After struggling to make a living, the family moved to Oregon City, Oregon. There they worked in a new mill. He worked for the mill for a year, then for a lumber corporation, and the Oregon and California Railroad. The family moved back to Ogden, Utah in 1869 after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad hoping it would bring them work. In the Ogden area, he worked cutting wood and building homes. He worked as a freighter and for the Union Pacific coal mines. He also worked at a sawmill at Monte

neg: Salt Lake City officially suggested members obey the law of the land (which was equivalent to forbidding new polygamous marriages inside the U.S. and its territories, but not in church member settlements in Canada and Mexico). This paved the way for statehood in 1896, when Salt Lake City became the state capital. The First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869 at Promontory Summit on the north side of the Great Salt Lake. A railroad was connected to the city from the Transcontinental Railroad in 1870, making travel less burdensome. Mass migration of different groups followed. Ethnic Chinese (who laid most of the Central

neg: Transcontinental railroad National Railway, which currently is now Canada's largest transcontinental railway, with lines running all the way from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast. The first railroad to directly connect two oceans (although not by crossing a broad "continental" land mass) was the Panama Rail Road. Opened in 1855, this line was designated instead as an "inter-oceanic" railroad crossing Central America at its narrowest point, the Isthmus of Panama, when that area was still part of Colombia. (Panama split off from Colombia in 1903 and became the independent nation of Panama). By spanning the isthmus, the line thus became the

neg: Wendover, Utah was established in 1908 as a station stop on the Western Pacific Railroad, then under construction. The transcontinental telephone line was completed as workers raised the final pole at Wendover, Utah on June 27, 1914, after construction of of telephone line. However, the line was not utilized until January 25, 1915, when the first transcontinental telephone call was made to coincide with the opening of the Panama Pacific Exposition. From 1917 to 1939, a Western Pacific subsidiary known as the Deep Creek Railroad also operated into Wendover. The Western Pacific became part of the larger Union Pacific Railroad in 1983.

neg: Transcontinental railroad American Civil War, its construction was considered to be one of the greatest American technological feats of the 19th century. Known as the "Pacific Railroad" when it opened, this served as a vital link for trade, commerce, and travel and opened up vast regions of the North American heartland for settlement. Shipping and commerce could thrive away from navigable watercourses for the first time since the beginning of the nation. Much of this route, especially on the Sierra grade west of Reno, Nevada, is currently used by Amtrak's "California Zephyr", although some parts have been rerouted. The transcontinental railroad provided

neg: Thomas C. Durant buying competing rail line stock, and then said the Transcontinental Railroad was going to go to that line. Since the government paid for each mile of track laid, Durant overrode his engineers and ordered extra track to be laid in large oxbows. In the first years, the Union Pacific did not extend further than from Council Bluffs. As the federal government was waging the Civil War, Durant avoided its oversight on railroad construction. During the war, Durant made a fortune smuggling contraband cotton from the Confederate States, with the help of Gen. Grenville M. Dodge. When the war ended in

neg: Durant, Polk County, Nebraska Durant, Polk County, Nebraska Durant is an unincorporated community in Polk County, Nebraska, in the United States. Durant was established when the Union Pacific Railroad was extended to that point, during the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad. A town called Durant, Nebraska features at the end of season 1 and the beginning of season 2 of the AMC-TV series "Hell on Wheels". A nod to the real-life Durant, Polk County, Nebraska. Season 2, episode 2 is titled "Durant, Nebraska". In this episode of the tv-series the town of Durant, Nebraska is ransacked by Indians. The town was never rebuilt.

neg: BloodRayne 2: Deliverance Transcontinental Railroad in one week. Along with the railroad however, arrives an unwelcome and deadly guest, a vampiric Billy the Kid. Using the railway, the 357-year-old Transylvanian vampire is building an army of cowboy vampires to take over the country and create a vampire kingdom in the New World. Billy and his horde go on a rampage, slaughtering townspeople and rounding up children. Billy spares Newton's life and promises Newton the greatest story ever told. Billy's plans hit a snag when Rayne arrives in the town. Rayne is a Dhampir, the product of an unnatural union between a vampire and

neg: American frontier workforce for the building of Central Pacific portion of the transcontinental railroad. Most of them went home by 1870 when the railroad was finished. Those who stayed on worked in mining, agriculture, and opened small shops such as groceries, laundries and restaurants. Hostility remained high as seen by the Chinese Massacre Cove episode and the Rock Springs massacre. The Chinese were generally forced into self-sufficient "Chinatowns" in cities such as San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. In Los Angeles, the last major anti-Chinese riot took place in 1871, after which local law enforcement grew stronger. In the late 19th century, Chinatowns

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad which slowly advanced into the rock. Once the hole was about deep, it would be filled with black powder, a fuse set and then ignited from a safe distance. Nitroglycerin, which had been invented less than two decades before the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, was used in relatively large quantities during its construction. This was especially true on the Central Pacific Railroad, which owned its own nitroglycerin plant to ensure it had a steady supply of the volatile explosive. This plant was operated by Chinese laborers as they were willing workers even under the most trying and dangerous

neg: Ames Monument stone a half-mile to the work site. The rough-faced granite blocks used to construct the monument in many cases weigh several tons. Workers constructed the pyramid about 300 yards south of the tracks on a small knoll. When completed in 1882, the Ames Monument stood south of, and above, the highest elevation of the original tracks of Union Pacific transcontinental railroad at . President Rutherford B. Hayes underscored the importance of the transcontinental railroad and thereby the Ames brothers by attending the monument's dedication ceremony. However, when completed in 1882, the Ames Monument was visited by many persons who were

neg: Thomas C. Durant and Rock Island Railroad. After a steamboat hit the bridge, boat operators sued to have the bridge dismantled. Durant and the Rock Island hired private attorney Abraham Lincoln to defend the bridge. This association later played to Durant's favor when in 1862 President Lincoln selected Durant's new company, the Union Pacific, and its operation center in Council Bluffs, Iowa as the starting point of the First Transcontinental Railroad. At the same time, Durant manipulated the stock market, running up the value of his M&M stock by saying he was going to connect the Transcontinental Railroad to it. He was secretly

neg: U.S. Route 285 original U.S. Route 650, which was designated in 1926, but eliminated in 1936 when US 285 was commissioned along its present extent from Sanderson to Denver, mostly replacing state-numbered highways. Between Denver and Como, US 285 mostly follows the route of the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, part of the original narrow gauge transcontinental railroad. The route skirts the south side of the Mount Evans massif, then descends into and crosses the South Park. Como in Colorado's South Park still houses one of the few remaining narrow gauge roundhouses. The transcontinental railroad route breaks away from US 285 at

neg: Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow (1816–1891) his law practice through the war and concentrated on promoting the area's economic development. He worked with former antislavery adversary Cyrus K. Holliday, who had organized the Atchison and Topeka Railway Company in 1859, which reorganized in 1863 as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Using their political connections and funds (government railroad bonds and land grants) allotted by the Pacific Railroad Acts, they connected their lines to the First Transcontinental Railroad at Council Bluffs in 1869. Three years later Topeka became the eastern terminus for the second transcontinental route, which ended in Los Angeles. B.F. Stringfellow died at

neg: Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Passenger Depot Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Passenger Depot The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Passenger Depot, located in Great Falls, Montana, was built in 1915 by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (also known as The Milwaukee Road). The Milwaukee Road was the last transcontinental railroad that entered Montana in 1907-1908 as a part of its "Pacific Extension". The depot is a two-story brick building that includes a 135-foot tower. The building is rectangular in shape. The first floor held the waiting rooms, station agent's office and baggage rooms. Railroad offices were located on the second floor. It was

neg: The Bread-Winners 1873, making the U.S. second only to Britain in manufacturing output. Railroad construction made practical the exploitation of the trans-Mississippi West. Although the railroads helped fuel an economic boom, they proved a two-edged sword in the 1870s. The 1872 Crédit Mobilier scandal, over graft in the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad, shook the Grant administration to its highest levels. Railroad bankruptcies in the Panic of 1873 led to loss of jobs, wage cuts, and business failures. These disturbances culminated in the Railroad Strikes of 1877, when workers struck over cut wages and loss of jobs. The action originally started

neg: San Francisco and Oakland Railroad leased "Contra Costa", had previously been in service from San Francisco to the foot of Broadway. The lease ended in 1864 and the SF&O purchased the ferryboat "Louise" to replace it. With the extended railroad line, traffic increased considerably and the "Louise" was soon inadequate for regular service. The larger river packet "Washoe", having been damaged in an explosion, was purchased, extensively rebuilt as a ferryboat, and placed in service. In 1868, the Central Pacific Railroad controlled the SF&O and anticipated much increased traffic when the transcontinental railroad was completed to Oakland. They ordered a new even larger ferryboat, the

neg: Kingman, Arizona daily service between Los Angeles and Chicago. The small Amtrak station in downtown Kingman is a historically significant building, constructed in Mission Revival Style architecture; however, prior to the establishment of Amtrak in 1971, the structure had fallen into disrepair with the decline of passenger rail service in the U.S. A total renovation of the building was completed in 2010. While still serving as a railroad station, the building is also now home to a model railroad museum. Kingman also is located on the Southern Transcon route of the BNSF Railway. This is the main transcontinental route between Los Angeles

neg: Orange, California be served by the California Southern Railroad when the nation's second transcontinental rail line reached Orange County. The town experienced its first growth spurt during the last decade of the 19th century (as did many of the surrounding communities), thanks to ever-increasing demands for California-grown citrus fruits, a period some refer to as the "Orange Era." Southern California's real estate "boom" of 1886–1888, fueled by railroad rate wars, also contributed to a marked increase in population. Like most cities in Orange County, agriculture formed the backbone of the local economy, and growth thereafter was slow and steady until the 1950s,

neg: Montana 1875 and 1876 helped spark the Great Sioux War of 1876. The transcontinental NPR was completed on September 8, 1883, at Gold Creek. Tracks of the Great Northern Railroad (GNR) reached eastern Montana in 1887 and when they reached the northern Rocky Mountains in 1890, the GNR became a significant promoter of tourism to Glacier National Park region. The transcontinental GNR was completed on January 6, 1893, at Scenic, Washington. In 1881, the Utah and Northern Railway a branch line of the Union Pacific completed a narrow gauge line from northern Utah to Butte. A number of smaller spur lines

neg: George Chorpenning Express became obsolete in late 1861 when the First Transcontinental Telegraph, also using Chorpenning's route and way stations, became operational. Transportation along Chorpenning's central route continued until the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. Chorpenning returned to the eastern states, where he was instrumental in organizing Civil War army units for the state of Maryland. He later petitioned the U.S. Government (unsuccessfully) to meet their contractual obligations for his mail transport service, a process which exposed the capricious nature by which they let (and annulled) contracts. George Chorpenning died in New York City in 1894. His hometown newspaper, the

neg: Barberton station (Erie Railroad) Warren G. Harding. The Erie Depot is Barberton, Ohio's first commercial building and was built in 1890 by Barberton's founder, American industrialist Ohio Columbus Barber, to promote the new town. Barberton was officially founded in 1891. The depot is built in the Stick Eastlake architectural style and is on the Erie Railroad. The Erie Railroad linked New York City with Chicago. What became the Erie railroad tracks were running through what was then Norton in 1851, 39 years before the Erie Depot was built. The Erie Railroad was built only 50 years after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, which,

neg: Streetcars in Reno of the newly expanded Washoe County, replacing the previous county seat, located in Washoe City. After the opening of the Transcontinental Railroad, branch railroads began to connect with the first Transcontinental Railroad. For example, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad was extended to Reno in 1872, which provided a boost to the new city's economy. These railroads hauled lumber from Carson City to the mines, and ore from the mines out to the main Transcontinental Railroad. In 1885, the University of Nevada (then called Nevada State University) moved from Elko to Reno. By the early 1900s, Reno was large enough that

neg: First Transcontinental Railroad which was opened in 1925 when the summit section of the grade was double tracked. This routing change was made because the Track 2 and Tunnel 41 Summit crossing is far easier and less expensive to maintain and keep open in the harsh Sierra winters. On June 18, 1868, the Central Pacific reached Reno, Nevada, after completing of railroad up and over the Sierras from Sacramento, California. By then the railroad had already been prebuilt down the Truckee River on the much flatter land from Reno to Wadsworth, Nevada, where they bridged the Truckee for the last time. From there,

neg: National Park Service rustic park concessioners. The early park concessioners received little supervision. Their structures were typical makeshift frontier efforts. Not until after the completion of the northern transcontinental railroads in the 1890s, did more advanced concessioner facilities appear in Yellowstone, for example. Among the first of these was the Lake Hotel, constructed by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1890. The formal classicism of this structure, with its ionic columns, three projecting porticos and symmetrical façade, made it clear that the building owed nothing to its setting. The railroads brought the first major developments to the parks. At the same time, as a part