US Transcontinental Railroad
The 1869 rail link that cut coast-to-coast freight from months to days and opened the American West.
Overview
The Union Pacific built west from Omaha and the Central Pacific built east from Sacramento with Chinese laborers forming the majority of its workforce, meeting at Promontory Summit in May 1869. Federal land grants and bonds financed roughly 3,000 kilometers of line. Freight that had taken weeks by wagon or sail moved in days, Chicago's meat and Midwest grain flowed west and California produce east, and settlement followed the graders. Consolidation left a handful of systems by 1900. Passenger trains lost to cars and jets, but the corridor now hauls double-stack container trains among the busiest heavy-haul routes on earth.
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