Editing Union Pacific Railroad (section)

===Union Pacific in the 19th century===
{{See also|First transcontinental railroad}}

The original company, the "Union Pacific Rail Road", was incorporated on July 1, 1862, under the [[Pacific Railway Acts|Pacific Railroad Act of 1862]]. President [[Abraham Lincoln]] had approved the act, which authorized railroad construction from the [[Missouri River]] to the Pacific to ensure the stability of the Union throughout the [[American Civil War]],<ref>[http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Pacific_Railroad_Acts.html "An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527113235/http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Pacific_Railroad_Acts.html |date=May 27, 2016 }} 12 Stat. 489, July 1, 1862</ref> but construction did not complete until after the conflict's conclusion.

Under the original bill that formed the basis of the [[Pacific Railway Acts|1862 Pacific Railroad Act]], the Union Pacific Railroad was to be built from the Nevada–Utah border in the west to the Colorado–Kansas border in the east. However, due to intense lobbying by [[Thomas C. Durant|Dr. Thomas Clark Durant]], the eastern terminal was moved to a location where the Union Pacific could link up with the [[Mississippi and Missouri Railroad]] in Iowa.<ref name="Borneman 2010">{{cite book |last=Borneman |first=Walter R. |author-link= |date=2010 |title=Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad |url= |location= |publisher=Random House |page=37 |isbn=978-1-4000-6561-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bain |first=David Haward |author-link= |date=1999 |title=Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad |url= |location= |publisher=Viking |pages=114–115 |isbn=0-670-80889-X}}</ref> Following the Act's passage, commissioners appointed by Congress began selling stock in the federally chartered Union Pacific Railroad Company. By 1863, Durant had organized the purchase of 2,000 shares, the prerequisite amount of stock sold in order to begin the railroad's construction.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=Richard |author-link= |date=2011 |title=Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America |url= |location=|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |pages=19–20 |isbn=978-0-393-06126-0}}</ref>

The resulting track ran westward from [[Council Bluffs, Iowa]], to meet in Utah the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] line, which had been constructed eastward from [[Sacramento, California]]. The combined Union Pacific–Central Pacific line became known as the [[first transcontinental railroad]] and later the [[Overland Route (Union Pacific Railroad)|Overland Route]].
[[File:The-Golden-Spike-7Oct2012.jpg|left|thumb|231x231px|The original "golden spike", on display at the Cantor Arts Museum at [[Stanford University]]]]

The line was constructed primarily by Irish labor who had learned their craft during the recent [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Collins |first=R.M. |title=Irish Gandy Dancer: A tale of building the Transcontinental Railroad |date=2010 |publisher=Create Space |isbn=978-1-4528-2631-8 |location=Seattle |page=198}}</ref> Under the guidance of its dominant stockholder, [[Thomas C. Durant]], the namesake of the city of [[Durant, Iowa]], the first rails were laid in [[Omaha]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/AEC8848.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext |title=Progress of the Union Pacific railroad west from Omaha, Nebraska, across the continent, making,: with its connections, an unbroken line from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. |date=April 2, 1868 |publisher=C. A. Alvord |edition=Pamphlet |location=15 Vandewater Street, L. O. |pages=5 |quote=This aid was given to two powerful companies, viz., to {{smallcaps|The Union Pacific Railroad Company}}, building from Omaha, on the Missouri river, West; and to {{smallcaps|The Central Pacific Railroad Company}} of California, building from Sacramento, East.}} Text taken from OCR; may be corrupt.</ref> The two lines were joined at [[Promontory Summit, Utah]], {{convert|53|mi}} west of [[Ogden, Utah|Ogden]] on May 10, 1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America.<ref name="WDL">{{Cite web |date=May 10, 1869 |title=Ceremony at "Wedding of the Rails," May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11371/ |access-date=July 20, 2013 |publisher=[[World Digital Library]]}}</ref> Leland Stanford, founder of the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] which itself eventually was merged with Union Pacific, himself drove the [[golden spike]], inscribed with the words "to span the continent and wed the oceans."<ref>{{Cite web |title=First Transcontinental Railroad and Stanford forever linked |url=https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2019/05/first-transcontinental-railroad-stanford-forever-linked |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=news.stanford.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=City |first=Mailing Address: P. O. Box 897 Brigham |last2=Us |first2=UT 84302 Phone: 435 471-2209 x429 Contact |title=Four Special Spikes - Golden Spike National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/gosp/learn/historyculture/four-special-spikes.htm |access-date=2024-07-09 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref>[[File:The Last Spike 1869.jpg|thumb|left|''The Last Spike'', by [[Thomas Hill (American painter)|Thomas Hill]] (1881)|alt=]]Subsequently, the UP purchased three [[Mormon]]-built, narrow-gauge roads: the [[Utah Central Railroad (1869–1881)|Utah Central Railroad]] extending south from Ogden to [[Salt Lake City]], the [[Utah Southern Railroad (1871–1881)|Utah Southern Railroad]] extending south from Salt Lake City into the [[Utah Valley]], and the [[Utah Northern Railroad]] extending north from Ogden into [[Idaho]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Solomon |first=Brian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-KLEjzWUq8C&pg=PA35 |title=Union Pacific Railroad |date=2000 |publisher=MBI |isbn=978-0-7603-0756-4 |location=Osceola, WI |pages=36}}</ref> [[File:Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad on the 100th meridian approximately 250 miles west of Omaha, Nebr. Terr. The tra - NARA - 530892.jpg|thumb|Directors of the Union Pacific Railroad gather on the 100th [[Meridian (geography)|meridian]], which later became [[Cozad, Nebraska]], about {{Convert|250|mi}} west of [[Omaha]] in the [[Nebraska Territory]], in October 1866. The train in the background awaits the party of Eastern capitalists, newspapermen, and other prominent figures invited by the railroad executives.|alt=]]  The UP also purchased the Utah Eastern Railroad and Utah Western Railroad, both Mormon narrow-gauge lines.<ref>Hilton, George W.  ''American Narrow Gauge Railroads,'' p. 536, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1990.</ref>

The original UP was entangled in the [[Crédit Mobilier of America scandal|Crédit Mobilier scandal]], exposed in 1872. As detailed by the [[The Sun (New York City)|''New York Sun'']], Union Pacific's largest construction company, Crédit Mobilier, had overcharged Union Pacific; the railroad would then pass the inflated costs on to the United States government. To convince the federal government to accept the increased costs, Crédit Mobilier had bribed multiple congressmen. Several prominent UP board members (including Durant) had been involved in the scheme.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Jay Boyd |url=https://archive.org/details/creditmobilierof00craw |title=The Credit Mobilier of America: Its Origin and History |date=1880 |publisher=C. W. Calkins & Co. |location=Boston |page=[https://archive.org/details/creditmobilierof00craw/page/101 101]}}</ref> The ensuing [[Panic of 1873|financial crisis of 1873]] led to a credit crunch, but not bankruptcy.

As boom followed bust, the Union Pacific continued to expand. A new company, with dominant stockholder [[Jay Gould]], purchased the old on January 24, 1880. Gould already owned the [[Kansas Pacific Railroad|Kansas Pacific]] (originally called the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, though in essence a separate railroad), and sought to merge it with UP. Through that merger, the original "Union Pacific Rail Road" transformed into "Union Pacific Railway".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ripley |first=William Zebina |url=https://archive.org/details/railroadsfinanc01riplgoog |title=Railroads: Finance and Organization |date=1915 |publisher=Longmans, Green, & Company |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/railroadsfinanc01riplgoog/page/n265 249]–250 |quote=gould.}}</ref>

Extending towards the Pacific Northwest, Union Pacific built or purchased local lines to reach [[Portland, Oregon]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=PNWC-NRHS |url=http://www.pnwc-nrhs.org/hs_or_n.html |access-date=September 7, 2018 |publisher=Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company}}</ref> Towards Colorado, it built the [[Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway]]: a system combining narrow-gauge trackage into the heart of the Rockies and a standard gauge line that ran south from Denver, across [[New Mexico]], and into Texas.

The Union Pacific Railway would later declare bankruptcy during the [[Panic of 1893]]. The resulting corporate reorganization reversed Gould's name change: Union Pacific "Railway" merged into a new Union Pacific "Railroad".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Solomon |first=Brian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-KLEjzWUq8C&pg=PA35 |title=Union Pacific Railroad |date=2000 |publisher=Voyageur Press |isbn=9781610605595 |pages=35–43}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Post-Construction |url=https://www.up.com/aboutup/history/overview/post-construction/index.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908092812/https://www.up.com/aboutup/history/overview/post-construction/index.htm |archive-date=September 8, 2018 |access-date=September 7, 2018 |publisher=Union Pacific}}</ref>