From May-December 1869, Promontory was the terminus of the transcontinental railroad (the junction point for Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads).
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By spring 1869, Central Pacific had made it through the mountains and onto the relatively flat land of western Utah, constructing 690 miles of track through some of the most difficult terrain ever encountered by a railroad.
Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 on July 1, 1862, and the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) and the Union Pacific Railroad were authorized by Congress.
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In 1870 it took approximately seven days and cost as little as $65 for a ticket on the transcontinental line from New York to San Francisco; $136 for first class in a Pullman sleeping car; $110 for second class; and $65 for a space on a third- or “emigrant”-class bench.
As Central Pacific laid tracks eastward, Union Pacific was working westward and the race to Promontory Summit, Utah, where they would eventually meet on May 10, 1869, was on.
The building of the Transcontinental Railroad relied on the labor of thousands of migrant workers, including Chinese, Irish, and Mormons workers. On the western portion, about 90% of the backbreaking work was done by Chinese migrants.
In May 1869, the railheads of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads finally met at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. A specially-chosen Chinese and Irish crew had taken only 12 hours to lay the final 10 mi (16 km) of track in time for the ceremony.
Most travelers of the early 1870*5 mentioned eighteen to twenty-two miles per hour as the average. Although speeds were doubled within a decade, time-consuming stops and starts at more than two hundred stations and water tanks prevented any considerable reduction in total hours spent on the long journey.
Britain's first railway networks caused huge social upheaval that's hard to imagine in our ultra-connected world—and nowhere more so than in Shildon, the original railway town. The opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825 was a pivotal moment in Britain's industrial revolution.
The first public railway in the world was the Lake Lock Rail Road, a narrow gauge railway built near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The early wooden railways were improved on in 1793 when Benjamin Outram constructed a mile-long tramway with L-shaped cast iron rails.
To drive the final spike, Stanford lifted a silver spike maul and drove the spike into the tie, completing the line. Stanford and Hewes missed the spike, but the single word done was nevertheless flashed by telegraph around the country.
Passenger train travel in the 1880s generally cost 2-3 cents per mile. Transcontinental (New York to San Francisco) ticket rates as of June 1870 were $136 for first class in a Pullman sleeping car; $110 for second class; $65 for third or “emigrant” class seats on a bench.