The first to be chartered and built was the Granite Railway of Massachusetts, which ran approximately three miles (1826). The first regular carrier of passengers and freight was the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, completed on February 28, 1827.
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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.
The Railroad Act of 1862 put government support behind the transcontinental railroad and helped create the Union Pacific Railroad, which subsequently joined with the Central Pacific at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869, and signaled the linking of the continent.
The first railroad built in Great Britain to use steam locomotives was the Stockton and Darlington, opened in 1825. It used a steam locomotive built by George Stephenson and was practical only for hauling minerals. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830, was the first modern railroad.
Two companies competed to lay as much track as possible. The Central Pacific built east from Sacramento, Calif., while the Union Pacific built west from Omaha, Neb.
Route of the first American transcontinental railroad from Sacramento, California, to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Other railroads connected at Council Bluffs to cities throughout the East and Midwest.
1828 – Railway (horse-drawn carriage) Ceské Budejovice – Linz, first public railway in continental Europe, with length 120 km and rail gauge 1,106 mm (3 ft 7 1/2 in), section Ceské Budejovice – Kerschbaum put into operation on 30 September 1828.
The first to be chartered and built was the Granite Railway of Massachusetts, which ran approximately three miles (1826). The first regular carrier of passengers and freight was the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, completed on February 28, 1827.
The U.S.'s first transcontinental railroad was built between 1863 and 1869 to join the eastern and western halves of the United States. Begun just before the American Civil War, its construction was considered to be one of the greatest American technological feats of the 19th century.
John Stevens is considered to be the father of American railroads. In 1826 Stevens demonstrated the feasibility of steam locomotion on a circular experimental track constructed on his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey, three years before George Stephenson perfected a practical steam locomotive in England.
Thousands of workers, including Irish and German immigrants, former Union and Confederate soldiers, freed slaves, and especially Chinese immigrants played a part in the construction. Chinese laborers first went to work for the Central Pacific as it began crossing California's Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1865.
This is an interactive map of the major freight railroads, also known as class I railroads in the United States. They include CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS), Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF), Union Pacific (UP), Canadian Pacific (CP), Canadian National Railway (CN), and the Kansas City Southern (KCS).