America's first transcontinental railroad was a 1,911-mile continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, with the
The ceremony for the driving of the "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit, Utah, May 10, 1869
Title page of Dr. Hartwell Carver's 1847 Pacific Railroad proposal to Congress from Lake Michigan to the West Coast
The official poster announcing the Pacific Railroad's grand opening
The Golden Spike monument located in Council Bluffs, Iowa at the Eastern Terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad.
The history of the Union Pacific Railroad stretches from 1862 to the present. For operations of the current railroad, see Union Pacific Railroad; for the holding company that owns the current railroad
Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad gather on the 100th meridian, which later became Cozad, Nebraska, approximately 250 miles (400 km) west of Omaha, Nebraska Territory, in October 1866. The train in the background awaits the party of Eastern capitalists, newspapermen, and other prominent figures invited by the railroad executives.
Poster for UP railroad opening-day, 1869.
The Last Spike, by Thomas Hill, (1881).
Dale Creek Bridge