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Brief History


Union Pacific is steeped in history. Its railroad, basically comprised of
the Missouri Pacific, Chicago and North Western, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific Railroads,
is almost 150 years old. In 1851, the Pacific Railroad - the forerunner
of the Missouri Pacific - began construction on the first line to be built
west of the Mississippi. In 1862, Union Pacific - chartered by an act of
Congress and signed into law by Abraham Lincoln - was created to link America's
East and Midwest to the rapidly growing West Coast and to open trade with
the Orient. In 1867, the Chicago and North Western connected Chicago with
Omaha, thus helping to complete the first transcontinental railroad two
years later. And, in 1869, the Central Pacific (later, part of the Southern Pacific) met with Union
Pacific as the final link in this transcontinental line. The driving of the Golden Spike at
Promontory, Utah Territory,
heralded a new era of economic development for the United States.
Quite literally, railroads like Union Pacific opened the West.
In 1868, Andrew J. Russell, who had been an official photographer for the
U.S. Army during the Civil War under Matthew Brady, was commissioned by
Union Pacific to photograph its construction crews as they laid ribbons
of steel across the plains and through the mountains and valleys of the
western territories. This endeavor was the 19th Century technological equivalent
of the space program a century later. Russell's pictures are a testament
to this breathtaking achievement - hailed as "The Great Work of the
Age" - and to the heritage of Union Pacific.
A vast, rugged wilderness stood between America's fertile midwestern plains
and its burgeoning West Coast when the U.S. Congress passed the Pacific
Railroad Act in 1862 to provide incentives for private capital to build
a transcontinental railroad. Union Pacific began its westward march across
rain-swollen rivers, snow-covered mountains and arid plains from Omaha,
Nebraska in 1862. The Civil War interrupted building until 1865, but by
the winter of 1868 track-laying forces had spanned the Green River and pushed
beyond Citadel Rock, above, in southern Wyoming.
In the spring of 1869, Union Pacific had cut its way into the rugged Wasatch
Mountains, northeast of Salt Lake City, on its way to a rendezvous with
the Central Pacific (later, part of the Southern Pacific). One of the last obstacles to the Golden
Spike ceremony
was the Brooks Cut, above. By the time Union Pacific reached the rendezvous
point, its workforce was 10,000 strong, from bridge-builders to cooks. Many
had fought in the Civil War and still wore their uniforms.
Securing the last rail with the driving of the famed Golden Spike at Promontory,
Utah Territory, May 10, 1869, the transcontinental railroad's proud builders
commemorated the uniting of America by rail. From coast to coast the message,
"Done," was flashed by telegraph to an excited nation. Among the
men who built the Central Pacific from the West Coast, left, and Union Pacific,
right, some returned home to their families, but many stayed with the Railroad
to build expanding branch lines. Still others were among the tens of thousands
of new settlers who began to carve homes, farms, ranches and eventually
new states from the wilderness between the Missouri River and the Pacific
Ocean. Union Pacific has been serving the United States ever since, hauling
billions of tons of autos, trailer and container traffic, chemicals, coal,
grain, lumber, and an almost infnite variety of consumer goods. True to
its mission, the Railroad has accelerated the pace of America's development
and has become an important link in international trade.
More information is available in the historical area of the Union
Pacific Railroad Web site.
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