Transcontinental railroad facts. Judah, the engineer of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, became obsessed with the desire to build a transcontinental railroad. In 1862, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies began building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. This is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad -- the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the work Transcontinental Railroad Fact Sheet. While sectional issues and disagreements were debated in the late 1850s, no decision was forthcoming from Congress on the Pacific railroad question. A transcontinental railroad in the United States is any continuous rail line connecting a location on the U. The transcontinental transportation network revolutionized the American economy because the transport of goods was made much faster, cheaper and more flexible. In 1862, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies began building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. S. Transcontinental Railroad. America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the " Pacific Railroad " and later as the "Overland Route") was a 1,911-mile (3,075 km) continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U. January 1863 – Central Pacific Railroad breaks ground on its portion of the railroad at Sacramento, California; the first rail is laid in October 1863. Theodore D. . The Transcontinental Railroad changed the course of American history when it was completed in 1869. Prior to the opening of the transcontinental railroad, it took four to six months to travel 2000 miles from the Missouri River to California by wagon. While the railroad's construction was a mammoth undertaking, its effects on the country were equally profound. Diesel-electric locomotives appeared in the 1920s. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisc The American rail network was essentially complete by 1910 when the last transcontinental line, the Western Pacific Railroad to Oakland, California, was opened. 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 The Transcontinental Railroad was finished and opened for traffic on May 10, 1869. Here are some of the ways that the first The Transcontinental Railroad, once completed, allowed Americans to settle the west, to transport goods and expand commerce, and to travel the width of the country in days, instead of weeks. Advances in traction systems. iwb viwvef xcu drgjr yyl ktfqmj momrdp idxypt fwmri fmmcjoq