Editing First transcontinental railroad (section)

===Union Pacific route===
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2016}}
[[File:Transcontinental railroad route.png|thumb|left|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.]]

The Union Pacific's {{convert|1087|mi|km}} of track started at MP 0.0 in [[Council Bluffs, Iowa]],<ref name="ExecOrder"/> on the eastern side of the [[Missouri River]]. Omaha was chosen by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] as the location of its Transfer Depot where up to seven railroads could transfer mail and other goods to Union Pacific trains bound for the west.

Trains were initially transported across the Missouri River by ferry before they could access the western tracks beginning in [[Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha]], [[Nebraska Territory]]. The river froze in the winter, and the ferries were replaced by sleighs. A bridge was not built until 1872, when the {{convert|2750|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} [[Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge]] was completed.

After the rail line's initial climb through the Missouri River bluffs west of Omaha and out of the [[Missouri River]] Valley, the route bridged the [[Elkhorn River]] and then crossed over the new {{convert|1500|ft|m|adj=on}} [[Loup River]] bridge as it followed the north side of the [[Platte River]] valley west through Nebraska along the general path of the [[Oregon Trail|Oregon]], [[Mormon Trail|Mormon]] and [[California Trail]]s.

By December 1865, the Union Pacific had only completed {{convert|40|mi|km}} of track, reaching [[Fremont, Nebraska]], and a further {{convert|10|mi|km}} of roadbed.<ref>[http://utahrails.net/up/up-timeline-1864-1880.php Union Pacific Timeline] accessed March 8, 2013.</ref>

At the end of 1865, Peter A. Dey, Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific, resigned over a routing dispute with [[Thomas C. Durant]], one of the chief financiers of the Union Pacific.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The First Transcontinental Railroad • Chapter 8 |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/_Topics/history/_Texts/GALFTR/8*.html |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

With the end of the Civil War and increased government supervision in the offing, Durant hired his former M&M engineer [[Grenville M. Dodge]] to build the railroad, and the Union Pacific began a mad dash west.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-09-11 |title=Transcontinental Railroad – Construction, Competition & Impact |url=https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref>

Former Union General [[John S. Casement|John "Jack" Casement]] was hired as the new Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific. He equipped several railroad cars to serve as portable bunkhouses for the workers and gathered men and supplies to push the railroad rapidly west. Among the bunkhouses, Casement added a galley car to prepare meals, and he even provided for a herd of cows to be moved with the railhead and bunk cars to provide fresh meat. Hunters were hired to provide [[American bison|buffalo]] meat from the large herds of American bison.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

The small survey parties who scouted ahead to locate the roadbed were sometimes attacked and killed by raiding Native Americans. In response, the U.S. Army instituted active cavalry patrols that grew larger as the Native Americans grew more aggressive. Temporary, "[[Hell on Wheels|Hell on wheels]]" towns, made mostly of canvas tents, accompanied the railroad as construction headed west.<ref>{{cite book |last=Klein |first=Maury |date=2006 |orig-year=1987 |title=Union Pacific: Volume I, 1862–1893 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |pages=100–101 |isbn=1452908737}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Stephen E. |date=2000 |title=Nothing Like It In the World |url=https://archive.org/details/nothinglikeitinw00ambr |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nothinglikeitinw00ambr/page/217 217–219]}}</ref>

The [[Platte River]] was too shallow and meandering to provide river transport, but the Platte river valley headed west and sloped up gradually at about {{convert|6|ft/mi|m/km}}, often allowing to lay a mile (1.6&nbsp;km) of track a day or more in 1866 as the Union Pacific finally started moving rapidly west. Building bridges to cross creeks and rivers was the main source of delays. Near where the [[Platte River]] splits into the [[North Platte River]] and [[South Platte River]], the railroad bridged the North Platte River over a {{convert|2600|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} bridge (nicknamed ½ mile bridge). It was built across the shallow but wide North Platte resting on piles driven by steam [[pile driver]]s.<ref>[http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/70512/rec/1 North Platte Bridge] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525090608/http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/70512/rec/1 |date=May 25, 2017 }} accessed March 14, 2013.</ref> Here they built the "railroad" town of [[North Platte, Nebraska]], in December 1866 after completing about {{convert|240|mi|km|}} of track that year. In late 1866, former [[Major General]] [[Grenville M. Dodge]] was appointed Chief Engineer on the Union Pacific, but hard-working General "Jack" Casement continued to work as chief construction "boss" and his brother Daniel Casement continued as a financial officer.

The original emigrant route across Wyoming of the Oregon, Mormon and California Trails, after progressing up the [[Platte River]] valley, went up the [[North Platte River]] valley through [[Casper, Wyoming]], along the [[Sweetwater River (Wyoming)|Sweetwater River]] and over the [[Continental Divide]] at the {{convert|7412|ft|m|adj=on}} [[South Pass (Wyoming)|South Pass]]. The original westward travelers in their ox and mule pulled wagons tried to stick to river valleys to avoid as much road building as possible—gradients and sharp corners were usually of little or no concern to them. The ox and mule pulled wagons were the original off-road vehicles in their day since nearly all of the [[Emigrant Trail]]s went cross country over rough, unimproved trails. The route over South Pass's main advantage for wagons pulled by oxen or mules was a shorter elevation over an "easy" pass to cross and its "easy" connection to nearby river valleys on both sides of the continental divide for water and grass. The emigrant trails were closed in winter. The North Platte–South Pass route was far less beneficial for a railroad, as it was about {{convert|150|mi|km}} longer and much more expensive to construct up the narrow, steep and rocky canyons of the North Platte. The route along the North Platte was also further from [[Denver, Colorado]], and went across difficult terrain, while a railroad connection to that City was already being planned for and surveyed.

Efforts to survey a new, shorter, "better" route had been underway since 1864. By 1867, a new route was found and surveyed that went along part of the [[South Platte River]] in western Nebraska and after entering what is now the state of [[Wyoming]], ascended a gradual sloping ridge between [[Lodgepole Creek]] and [[Crow Creek (South Platte River)|Crow Creek]] to the {{convert|8200|ft|m|adj=on}} [[Sherman Summit|Evans pass]] (also called Sherman's Pass) which was discovered by the Union Pacific employed English surveyor and engineer, James Evans, in about 1864.<ref>[http://up150.com/timeline/sherman-summit Discovery of Evans Pass] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414011022/http://up150.com/timeline/sherman-summit |date=April 14, 2012 }} accessed March 8, 2013.</ref> This pass now is marked by the [[Ames Monument]] ({{coord|41.131281|N|105.398045|W|display=inline}}) marking its significance and commemorating two of the main backers of the Union Pacific Railroad. From North Platte, Nebraska (elevation {{convert|2834|ft|m|disp=or}}), the railroad proceeded westward and upward along a new path across the [[Nebraska Territory]] and [[Wyoming Territory]] (then part of the [[Dakota Territory]]) along the north bank of the [[South Platte River]] and into what would become the state of Wyoming at Lone Pine, Wyoming. Evans Pass was located between what would become the new "railroad" towns of [[Cheyenne, Wyoming|Cheyenne]] and [[Laramie, Wyoming|Laramie]]. Connecting to this pass, about {{convert|15|mi|km}} west of Cheyenne, was the one place across the [[Laramie Mountains]] that had a narrow "guitar neck" of land that crossed the mountains without serious erosion at the so-called "gangplank" ({{coord|41.099746|N|105.153205|W|display=inline}}) discovered by [[Major General]] [[Grenville Dodge]] in 1865 when he was in the U.S. Army.<ref>[https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20170525090609/http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/documentary-tells-story-of-railroad-s-march-across-state/article_692f32a0-b245-56cc-a21a-ae16f0d7955a.html Gankplank discovery] accessed March 5, 2013.</ref> The new route surveyed across Wyoming was over {{convert|150|mi|km}} shorter, had a flatter profile, allowing for cheaper and easier railroad construction, and also went closer by Denver and the known coalfields in the [[Wasatch Range|Wasatch]] and [[Laramie Range]]s.

The railroad gained about {{convert|3200|ft|m}} in the {{convert|220|mi|km}} climb to Cheyenne from North Platte, Nebraska—about {{convert|15|ft/mi|m/km}}—a very gentle slope of less than one degree average. This "new" route had never become an emigrant route because it lacked the water and grass to feed the emigrants' oxen and mules. Steam locomotives did not need grass, and the railroad companies could drill wells for water if necessary.

Coal had been discovered in Wyoming and reported on by [[John C. Frémont]] in his 1843 expedition across Wyoming, and was already being exploited by Utah residents from towns like [[Coalville, Utah]], and later [[Kemmerer, Wyoming]], by the time the Transcontinental railroad was built. Union Pacific needed coal to fuel its [[steam locomotive]]s on the almost treeless plains across Nebraska and Wyoming. Coal shipments by rail were also looked on as a potentially major source of income—this potential is still being realized.

[[File:Dale Creek Bridge Union Pacific Railroad Company by Andrew J Russell.jpg|thumb|right|Dale Creek Bridge]]
The Union Pacific reached the new railroad town of Cheyenne in December 1867, having laid about {{convert|270|mi|km}} that year. They paused over the winter, preparing to push the track over Evans (Sherman's) Pass. At {{convert|8247|ft|m}}, Evans Pass was the highest point reached on the transcontinental railroad. About {{convert|4|mi|km}} beyond Evans pass, the railroad had to build an extensive bridge over the Dale Creek canyon ({{coord|41.103803|N|105.454797|W|display=inline}}). The [[Dale Creek Crossing]] was one of their more difficult railroad engineering challenges.<ref>Pride and pitfalls along the coast to coast track, by Michael Kenney. Boston Globe. January 10, 2000. A book review: [[Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad]], by David Haward Bain.</ref> Dale Creek Bridge was {{convert|650|ft|m}} long and {{convert|125|ft|m}} above Dale Creek.<ref name="up">{{cite web |url=http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/hist-ov/hist-ov4.shtml |title=UP construction |access-date=August 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120408220256/http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/hist-ov/hist-ov4.shtml |archive-date=April 8, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The bridge components were pre-built of timber in [[Chicago, Illinois]], and then shipped on rail cars to Dale Creek for assembly. The eastern and western approaches to the bridge site, near the highest [[elevation]] on the transcontinental railroad, required cutting through granite for nearly a mile on each side.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZp_GT7PscIC|title=Nothing like it in the world: the men who built the transcontinental railroad, 1863–1869|first=Stephen E|last= Ambrose|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2001 | isbn=978-0743203173}}</ref> The initial Dale Creek bridge had a train speed limit of {{convert|4|mi|km}} per hour across the bridge. Beyond Dale Creek, railroad construction paused at what became the town of [[Laramie, Wyoming]], to build a bridge across the [[Laramie River]].

Located {{convert|35|mi|km}} from Evans pass, Union Pacific connected the new "railroad" town of Cheyenne to Denver and its [[Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company]] railroad line in 1870. Elevated {{convert|6070|ft|m}} above sea level, and sitting on the new Union Pacific route with a connection to Denver, Cheyenne was chosen to become a major railroad center and was equipped with extensive railroad yards, maintenance facilities, and a Union Pacific presence. Its location made it a good base for [[Bank engine|helper locomotives]] to couple to trains with [[snowplow]]s to help clear the tracks of snow or help haul heavy freight over Evans pass. The Union Pacific's junction with the Denver Railroad with its connection to [[Kansas City, Kansas]], [[Kansas City, Missouri]], and the railroads east of the Missouri River again increased Cheyenne's importance as the junction of two major railroads. Cheyenne later became Wyoming's largest city and the capital of the new state of Wyoming.

The railroad established many townships along the way: [[Fremont, Nebraska|Fremont]], [[Elkhorn, Nebraska|Elkhorn]], [[Grand Island, Nebraska|Grand Island]], [[North Platte, Nebraska|North Platte]], [[Ogallala, Nebraska|Ogallala]] and [[Sidney, Nebraska|Sidney]] as the railroad followed the Platte River across Nebraska territory. The railroad even dipped into what would become the new state of [[Colorado]] after crossing the North Platte River as it followed the [[South Platte River]] west into what would become [[Julesburg, Colorado|Julesburg]] before turning northwest along Lodgepole Creek into Wyoming. In the [[Dakota Territory]] (Wyoming) the new towns of [[Cheyenne, Wyoming|Cheyenne]], [[Laramie, Wyoming|Laramie]], [[Rawlins, Wyoming|Rawlins]] (named for [[Union Army|Union]] General [[John Aaron Rawlins]], who camped in the locality in 1867<ref>Stewart, George R. (1970) ''American Place-Names'', p. 401, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.</ref>), [[Green River, Wyoming|Green River]] and [[Evanston, Wyoming|Evanston]] (named after James Evans) were established, as well as much more fuel and water stops. The [[Green River (Colorado River)|Green River]] was crossed with a new bridge, and the new "railroad" town of Green River constructed there after the tracks reached the Green River on October 1, 1868—the last big river to cross.

On December 4, 1868, the Union Pacific reached Evanston, having laid almost {{convert|360|mi|km}} of track over the Green River and the [[Laramie Plains]] that year. By 1871, Evanston became a significant maintenance shop town equipped to carry out extensive repairs on the cars and steam locomotives.

In the [[Utah Territory]], the railroad once again diverted from the main emigrant trails to cross the [[Wasatch Range|Wasatch Mountains]] and went down the rugged Echo Canyon (Summit County, Utah) and [[Weber River]] canyon. To speed up construction as much as possible, Union Pacific contracted several thousand Mormon workers to cut, fill, trestle, bridge, blast and tunnel its way down the rugged Weber River Canyon to [[Ogden, Utah]], ahead of the railroad construction. The Mormon and Union Pacific rail work was joined in the area of the present-day border between Utah and Wyoming.<ref name="cprr.org">Mormon workers on Union Pacific transcontinental tracks [http://cprr.org/Museum/Stewart-Iron_Trail.html] accessed August 2, 2013.</ref> The longest of four tunnels built in Weber Canyon was {{convert|757|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} Tunnel 2. Work on this tunnel started in October 1868 and was completed six months later. Temporary tracks were laid around it and Tunnels 3 ({{convert|508|ft|m|disp=or}}), 4 ({{convert|297|ft|m|disp=or}}) and 5 ({{convert|579|ft|m|disp=or}}) to continue work on the tracks west of the tunnels.

The tunnels were all made with the new dangerous [[nitroglycerine]] explosive, which expedited work but caused some fatal accidents.<ref>Construction on Echo and Weber Canyon [http://utahrails.net/articles/weber-echo.php] accessed March 15, 2013.</ref> While building the railroad along the rugged Weber River Canyon, Mormon workers signed the [[Thousand Mile Tree]] which was a lone tree alongside the track {{convert|1000|mi|km}} from Omaha. A historic marker has been placed there.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://library.usu.edu/Specol/photoarchive/p0019/p00190019.html |title = Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery, Photographic Collection |author1 = F.V. Hayden |author2 = Daniel M. Davis |name-list-style = amp |access-date = 2007-01-06 |publisher = [[Utah State University]] Special Collections and Archives |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070112214258/http://library.usu.edu/Specol/photoarchive/p0019/p00190019.html |archive-date = January 12, 2007 |url-status = dead |df = mdy-all }}</ref>

The tracks reached [[Ogden, Utah]], on March 8, 1869,<ref>Deseret News March 17, 1869, page 1</ref> although finishing work would continue on the tracks, tunnels and bridges in Weber Canyon for over a year. From Ogden, the railroad went north of the [[Great Salt Lake]] to [[Brigham City, Utah|Brigham City]] and [[Corinne, Utah|Corinne]] using Mormon workers, before finally connecting with the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] at Promontory Summit in Utah territory on May 10, 1869.<ref name=UPmap>{{cite web|title=Union Pacific Map|url=http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Maps/_traveler%27s_rr_guide_1882.html|publisher=Central Pacific Railroad Museum|access-date=2009-02-05}}</ref><ref>Promontory Summit-NPS [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/gosp1/promontory_summit.pdf] accessed February 26, 2013.</ref> Some Union Pacific officers declined to pay the Mormons all of the agreed upon construction costs of the work through Weber Canyon, and beyond, claiming Union Pacific poverty despite the millions they had extracted through the [[Crédit Mobilier of America scandal]]. Only partial payment was secured through court actions against Union Pacific.<ref name="cprr.org"/>