Central Pacific Railroad
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| Locale | Sacramento, CA-Ogden, Utah |
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| Dates of operation | June 28, 1861–April 1, 1885, but continued as an SP leased line until 30 June 1959 |
| Successor | Southern Pacific |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) → 1 |
| Headquarters | Sacramento, CA; San Francisco, CA |
The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, US, that built eastwards from the West Coast in the 1860s, to complete the western part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the energy consumed by political disputes over slavery. With the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican Party controlled the US Congress. They passed legislation authorizing the railroad, with financing in the form of government railroad bonds. These were all eventually repaid with interest. The government and the railroads both shared in the increased value of the land grants, which the railroads developed. The construction of the railroad also secured for the government the economical "safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores."
Planned by Theodore Judah, the Central Pacific Railroad was authorized by Congress in 1862. It was financed and built through "The Big Four" (who called themselves "The Associates"): Sacramento, California businessmen Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins. Crocker was in charge of construction. Construction crews comprised 12,000 Chinese emigrant workers by 1868, when they constituted eighty percent of the entire work force. They laid the first rails in 1863. The "Golden spike", connecting the western railroad to the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory, Utah, was hammered on May 10, 1869. Coast-to-coast train travel in eight days became possible, replacing months-long sea voyages and lengthy, hazardous travel by wagon trains.
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Wikipedia