| A U.S. transcontinental railroad had long been a dream, but it was not until 1860 that engineer Theodore Judah developed a feasible plan for a railroad running from California through the Sierra Nevada and the western deserts to the Missouri River, where it would link with existing railroads. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 gave Judah's Central Pacific and the newly formed Union Pacific the land and money needed to construct the railroad. Over the next seven years, the two companies, relying primarily on immigrant labor, raced to construct tracks and meet in the center, which they did at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869. |
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