Editing First transcontinental railroad (section)

===Central Pacific route===
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2016}}
[[File:44. Cape Horn, C.P.R.R.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.0|Central Pacific Railroad at Cape Horn {{circa|1880}}]]

The Central Pacific laid {{convert|690|mi}} of track, starting in Sacramento, California, in 1863 and continuing over the rugged {{convert|7000|ft|m|adj=on}} [[Sierra Nevada]] mountains at [[Donner Pass]] into the new state of Nevada. The elevation change from Sacramento (elev. {{convert|40|ft|m|abbr=on|disp=or}}) to [[Donner Summit]] (elev. {{convert|7000|ft|m|abbr=on|disp=or}}) had to be accomplished in about {{convert|90|mi|km}} with an average elevation change of 76&nbsp;feet per&nbsp;mile (14&nbsp;meters per&nbsp;km), and there were only a few places in the Sierra where this type of "ramp" existed. The discovery and detailed map survey with profiles and elevations of this route over the Sierra Nevada is credited to [[Theodore Judah]], chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad until his death in 1863. This route is up a ridge between the North fork of the [[American River]] on the south and [[Bear River (Feather River tributary)|Bear]] and [[South Yuba River]]s on the north. As the railroad climbed out of Sacramento up to Donner Summit, there was only one {{convert|3|mi|km|adj=on}} section near "Cape Horn CPRR"<ref>Cape Horn CPRR [https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/C.P.R.R._train_at_Cape_Horn,_by_Thomas_Houseworth_%2526_Co..jpg&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:C.P.R.R._train_at_Cape_Horn,_by_Thomas_Houseworth_%2526_Co..jpg&h=1419&w=2737&sz=1669&tbnid=8IfJNhakdb9bqM:&tbnh=62&tbnw=120&zoom=1&usg=__R8lvvJNl_a9FCTGufLMRY_6Iz2I=&docid=nJYpVW4BZ669bM&itg=1&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8RU9UdL0GcruyQH-54GoCQ&ved=0CEwQ9QEwAw&dur=166] accessed March 10, 2013.</ref> where the railroad grade slightly exceeded two percent.

[[File:Dutch Flat Wagon Road 1864.jpg|thumb|left|1864 advertisement for the opening of the [[Dutch Flat Wagon Road]]]]
In June 1864, the Central Pacific railroad entrepreneurs opened Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Wagon Road (DFDLWR).<ref>Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Wagon Road [http://cprr.org/Museum/DFDLWR_Duncan.html] Accessed July 23, 2009.</ref> Costing about $300,000 and a years worth of work, this toll road wagon route was opened over much of the route the Central Pacific railroad (CPRR) would use over Donner Summit to carry freight and passengers needed by the CPRR and to carry other cargo over their toll road to and from the ever-advancing railhead and over the Sierra to the gold and silver mining towns of Nevada. As the railroad advanced, their freight rates with the combined rail and wagon shipments would become much more competitive. The volume of the toll road freight traffic to Nevada was estimated to be about $13,000,000 a year as the [[Comstock Lode]] boomed, and getting even part of this freight traffic would help pay for the railroad construction. When the railroad reached Reno, it had the majority of all Nevada freight shipments, and the price of goods in Nevada dropped significantly as the freight charges to Nevada dropped significantly. The rail route over the Sierras followed the general route of the Truckee branch of the [[California Trail]], going east over Donner Pass and down the rugged [[Truckee River]] valley.

The route over the Sierra had been plotted out by Judah in preliminary surveys before his death in 1863. Judah's deputy, [[Samuel S. Montague]] was appointed as Central Pacific's new Chief Engineer, with Lewis M. Clement as Assistant Chief Engineer and Charles Cadwalader as second assistant. To build the new railroad, detailed surveys had to be run that showed where the cuts, fills, trestles, bridges and tunnels would have to be built. Work that was identified as taking a long time was started as soon as its projected track location could be ascertained and work crews, supplies and road work equipment found to be sent ahead. Tunnels, trestles and bridges were nearly all built this way. The spread-out nature of the work resulted in the work being split into two divisions, with L. M. Clement taking the upper division from Blue Cañon to Truckee and Cadwalader taking the lower division from Truckee to the Nevada border. Other assistant engineers were assigned to specific tasks such as building a bridge, tunnel or trestle which was done by the workers under experienced supervisors.<ref name="lmc"/>

[[File:CPRR Sierra Grade @ Donner Summit (1869; 2003).jpg|right|thumb|The CPRR grade at Donner Summit as it appeared in 1869 and 2003]]
In total, the Central Pacific had eleven tunnel projects (Nos. 3 through 13) under construction in the Sierra from 1865 to 1868, with seven tunnels located in a {{convert|2|mi|km|adj=on}} stretch on the east side of Donner Summit. The tunnels were usually built by drilling a series of holes in the tunnel face, filling them with black powder and detonating it to break the rock free. The black powder was provided by the California Powder Works near [[Santa Cruz, California]]. These works had started production in 1864 after the [[American Civil War]] had cut off shipments of black powder from the East to the mining and railroad industry of California and Nevada. The Central Pacific was a prolific user of black powder, often using up to 500 kegs of {{convert|25|lb|kg}} per day.<ref>California Powder Works [http://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/black-powder.html] accessed March 19, 2013.</ref>

The summit tunnel (Number 6), {{convert|1660|ft|m}}, was started in late 1865, well ahead of the railhead. Through solid granite, the summit tunnel progressed at a rate of only about {{convert|0.98|ft|m}} per day per face as it was being worked by three eight-hour shifts of workers, hand drilling holes with a rock drill and hammer, filling them with black powder and trying to blast the granite loose.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Parks|first=Shoshi|date=January 12, 2022|title=The Quest to Protect California's Transcontinental Railroad Tunnels|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-quest-to-protect-californias-transcontinental-tunnels-180979382/|access-date=2022-02-12|magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}}</ref> One crew worked drilling holes on the faces and another crew collected and removed the loosened rock after each explosion. The workers were pulled off the summit tunnel and the track grading east of Donner Pass in the winter of 1865–1866 as there was no way to supply them, nor quarters they could have lived in. The crews were transferred to work on bridges and track grading on the Truckee River canyon.

[[File:CPRR Summit Tunnel Central Shaft.jpg|thumb|left|The vertical central shaft of the CPRR "Summit Tunnel" (Tunnel#6) at Donner Summit which allowed drilling and excavation to be carried out on four faces at once]]
In 1866, they put in a {{convert|125|ft|m|adj=on}} vertical shaft in the center of the summit tunnel and started work towards the east and west tunnel faces, giving four working faces on the summit tunnel to speed up progress. A steam engine off an old locomotive was brought up with much effort over the wagon road and used as a winch driver to help remove loosened rock from the vertical shaft and two working faces. By the winter of 1866–67, work had progressed sufficiently and a camp had been built for workers on the summit tunnel which allowed work to continue. The cross section of a tunnel face was a {{convert|16|ft|m|adj=mid|-wide}}, {{convert|16|ft|m|adj=mid|-high}} oval with an {{convert|11|ft|m|adj=on}} vertical wall. Progress on the tunnel sped up to over {{convert|1.5|ft|m}} per day per face when they started using the newly invented [[nitroglycerin]]—manufactured near the tunnel. They used nitroglycerin to deepen the summit tunnel to the required {{convert|16|ft|m|adj=on}} height after the four tunnel faces met, and made even faster progress. Nearly all other tunnels were worked on both tunnel faces and met in the middle. Depending on the material the tunnels penetrated, they were left unlined or lined with brick, rock walls or timber and post. Some tunnels were designed to bend in the middle to align with the track bed curvature. Despite this potential complication, nearly all the different tunnel center lines met within {{convert|2|in|cm|0}} or so. The detailed survey work that made these tunnel digs as precise as required was nearly all done by the Canadian-born and -trained Lewis Clement, the CPRR's Chief Assistant Engineer and Superintendent of Track, and his assistants.<ref name="lmc">Cooper, Bruce C. [http://cprr.org/Museum/Lewis_Metzler_Clement.html Lewis Metzler Clement: A Pioneer of the Central Pacific Railroad] The Central Pacific Photographic History Museum.</ref>

Hills or ridges in front of the railroad road bed would have to have a flat-bottomed, V-shaped "cut" made to get the railroad through the ridge or hill. The type of material determined the slope of the V and how much material would have to be removed. Ideally, these cuts would be matched with valley fills that could use the dug out material to bring the road bed up to grade—[[cut and fill]] construction. In the 1860s there was no heavy equipment that could be used to make these cuts or haul it away to make the fills. The options were to dig it out by pick and shovel, haul the hillside material by [[wheelbarrow]] and/or horse or mule cart or blast it loose. To blast a V-shaped cut out, they had to drill several holes up to {{convert|20|ft|m}} deep in the material, fill them with black powder, and blast the material away. Since the Central Pacific was in a hurry, they were profligate users of black powder to blast their way through the hills. The only disadvantage came when a nearby valley needed fill to get across it. The explosive technique often blew most of the potential fill material down the hillside, making it unavailable for fill.<ref>The Use of Black Powder and Nitroglycerine on the transcontinental railroad [http://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/black-powder.html] accessed March 19, 2013.</ref><ref>California Newspapers, 1865–66 [http://cprr.org/Museum/Newspapers/] accessed March 19, 2013.</ref> Initially, many valleys were bridged by "temporary" trestles that could be rapidly built and were later replaced by much lower maintenance and permanent solid fill. The existing railroad made transporting and putting material in valleys much easier—load it on railway dump cars, haul where needed and dump it over the side of the trestle.

[[File:Donner Pass Summit Tunnel West Portal.jpg|thumb|right|The Summit Tunnel at Donner Summit, West Portal ''(Composite image with the tracks removed in 1993 digitally restored)'']]
The route down the eastern Sierras was done on the south side of [[Donner Lake]] with a series of switchbacks carved into the mountain. The Truckee River, which drains [[Lake Tahoe]], had already found and scoured out the best route across the [[Carson Range]] of mountains east of the Sierras. The route down the rugged Truckee River Canyon, including required bridges, was done ahead of the main summit tunnel completion. To expedite the building of the railroad through the Truckee River canyon, the Central Pacific hauled two small locomotives, [[railcar]]s, rails and other material on wagons and sleighs to what is now [[Truckee, California]], and worked the winter of 1867–68 on their way down Truckee canyon ahead of the tracks being completed to Truckee. This feat was dramatized in John Ford's film ''The Iron Horse'' with one of Central Pacific's actual locomotives, [[C.P. Huntington]].<ref>"[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Southern_Pacific_Bulletin/bg0TAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=RA12-PA17&printsec=frontcover S.P. Aids Filming of Big Pictures]", ''Southern Pacific Bulletin'', Vol. XIV, No. 1. January 1925. Southern Pacific Company, 1924. 17.</ref> In Truckee canyon, five [[Howe truss]] bridges had to be built. This gave them a head start on getting to the "easy" miles across Nevada.

In order to keep the higher portions of the Sierra grade open in the winter, {{convert|37|mi}} of timber [[snow shed]]s were built between Blue Cañon and Truckee in addition to utilizing [[snowplow]]s pushed by locomotives, as well as manual shovelling. With the advent of more efficient oil fired steam and later diesel electric power to drive plows, flangers, spreaders, and rotary snow plows, most of the wooden snowsheds have long since been removed as obsolete. Tunnels 1–5 and Tunnel 13 of the original 1860s tunnels on Track 1 of the Sierra grade remain in use today, while additional new tunnels were later driven when the grade was double tracked over the first quarter of the twentieth century. In 1993, the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]] (which operated the CPRR-built [[Oakland, California|Oakland]]–[[Ogden, Utah|Ogden]] line until its 1996 merger with the [[Union Pacific]]) closed and pulled up the {{convert|6.7|mi|adj=on}} section of Track #1 over the summit running between the Norden complex (Shed 26, MP 192.1)<ref>Norden at {{coord|39.3176|-120.3584|display=inline}}</ref> and the covered crossovers in Shed #47 (MP 198.8)<ref>Shed 47 visible at {{coord|39.3116|-120.269|display=inline}}</ref> about a mile east of the old [[Flying junction|flyover]] at Eder, bypassing and abandoning the tunnel 6–8 complex, the concrete snowsheds just beyond them, and tunnels 9–12 ending at MP 195.7, all of which had been located on Track 1 within two miles of the summit.<ref>East end of Tunnel 41 at {{coord|39.301|-120.3003|display=inline}} with former track 1 passing above.</ref> Since then all east- and westbound traffic has been run over the Track #2 grade crossing the summit about {{convert|1|mi|km|spell=in}} south of Donner Pass through the {{convert|10322|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} Tunnel #41 ("The Big Hole") running under Mt. Judah between Soda Springs and Eder, which was opened in 1925 when the summit section of the grade was double tracked. This routing change was made because the Track 2 and Tunnel 41 Summit crossing is far easier and less expensive to maintain and keep open in the harsh Sierra winters.<ref>{{cite web|author=Cooper, Bruce C.|url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Sierra_Grade_8-2003/Donner_Pass-Summit_Tunnel/index.html |title=Summit Tunnel & Donner Pass |publisher=CPRR.org |date=August 2003}}</ref>

On June 18, 1868, the Central Pacific reached [[Reno, Nevada]], after completing {{convert|132|mi|km}} of railroad up and over the Sierras from [[Sacramento, California]]. By then the railroad had already been prebuilt down the Truckee River on the much flatter land from Reno to [[Wadsworth, Nevada]], where they bridged the Truckee for the last time. From there, they struggled across a [[Lahontan Valley|forty mile desert]] to the end of the Humboldt river at the [[Humboldt Sink]]. From the end of the Humboldt, they continued east over the [[Great Basin Desert]] bordering the [[Humboldt River]] to [[Wells, Nevada]]. One of the most troublesome problems found on this route along the Humboldt was at [[Palisade Canyon]] (near [[Carlin, Nevada]]), where for {{convert|12|mi|km}} the line had to be built between the river and basalt cliffs. From Wells, Nevada, to [[Promontory Summit]], the Railroad left the Humboldt and proceeded across the Nevada and Utah desert. Water for the [[steam locomotive]]s was provided by wells, springs, or pipelines to nearby water sources. Water was often pumped into the water tanks with [[windmill]]s. Train fuel and [[water crane]]s for the early trains with steam locomotives may have been as often as every {{convert|10|mi|km}}. On one memorable occasion, not far from Promontory, the Central Pacific crews organized an army of workers and five train loads of construction material, and [[Tracklaying race of 1869|laid {{convert|10|mi|km}} of track]] on a prepared rail bed in one day—a record that still stands today. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific raced to get as much track laid as possible, and the Central Pacific laid about {{convert|560|mi|km}} of track from Reno to Promontory Summit in the one year before the Last Spike was driven on May 10, 1869.

Central Pacific had 1,694 freight cars available by May 1869, with more under construction in their Sacramento yard. Major repairs and maintenance on the Central Pacific rolling stock was done in their Sacramento maintenance yard. Near the end of 1869, Central Pacific had 162 locomotives, of which 2 had two drivers (drive wheels), 110 had four drivers, and 50 had six drivers. The [[steam locomotive]]s had been purchased in the eastern states and shipped to California by sea. Thirty-six additional locomotives were built and coming west, and twenty-eight more were under construction. There was a shortage of passenger cars and more had to be ordered. The first Central Pacific sleeper, the "Silver Palace Sleeping Car", arrived at Sacramento on June 8, 1868.<ref>Constructing the Central Pacific Railroad [http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway7.html] accessed March 13, 2013.</ref>

The CPRR route passed through [[Newcastle, California|Newcastle]] and [[Truckee, California|Truckee]] in California, Reno, Wadsworth, [[Winnemucca, Nevada|Winnemucca]], [[Battle Mountain, Nevada|Battle Mountain]], [[Elko, Nevada|Elko]] and Wells in Nevada (with many more fuel and water stops), before connecting with the Union Pacific line at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory. When the eastern end of the CPRR was extended to Ogden by purchasing the [[Union Pacific Railroad]] line from Promontory for about $2.8&nbsp;million in 1870, it ended the short period of a boom town for [[Promontory, Utah|Promontory]], extended the Central Pacific tracks about {{convert|60|mi|km}} and made Ogden a major terminus on the transcontinental railroad, as passengers and freight switched railroads there.

[[File:Reno to Virginia City NV CPRR-V&TRR Ticket 1878 .jpg|thumb|left|CPRR-issued ticket for passage from Reno to Virginia City, NV on the V&TRR, 1878]]
Subsequent to the railhead's meeting at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, the San Joaquin River Bridge at Mossdale Crossing (near present-day [[Lathrop, California]]) was completed on September 8, 1869, with the first through freight train carrying freight from the East Coast leaving Sacramento and crossing the bridge to arrive that evening at the Alameda Wharf on San Francisco Bay. As a result, the western part of the route was extended from Sacramento to the [[Alameda Terminal]] in [[Alameda, California]], and shortly thereafter, to the [[Oakland Pier|Oakland Long Wharf]] at [[Oakland Point]] in [[Oakland, California]], and on to [[San Jose, California]]. Train ferries transferred some railroad cars to and from the Oakland wharves and tracks to wharves and tracks in [[San Francisco]]. Before the CPRR was completed, developers were building other feeder railroads like the [[Virginia and Truckee Railroad]] to the [[Comstock Lode]] diggings in [[Virginia City, Nevada]], and several different extensions in California and Nevada to reach other cities there. Some of their main cargo was the thousands of [[cord (unit)|cords]] ({{convert|1|cord|m3|disp=out}} each) of firewood needed for the many steam engines and pumps, cooking stoves, heating stoves etc. in Comstock Lode towns and the tons of ice needed by the miners as they worked ever deeper into the "hot" Comstock Lode ore body. In the mines, temperatures could get above {{convert|120|F}} at the work face and a miner often used over {{convert|100|lb|kg}} of ice per shift. This new railroad connected to the Central Pacific near Reno, and went through [[Carson City, Nevada|Carson City]], the new capital of Nevada.<ref>{{cite web|title=Central Pacific Railroad Map|url=http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Maps/_crofutt_1870_map.html|publisher=Central Pacific Railroad Museum|access-date=2009-02-05}}</ref>

After the transcontinental railroads were completed, many other railroads were built to connect up to other population centers in Utah, Wyoming, Kansas, Colorado, Oregon, Washington territories, etc. In 1869, the [[Kansas Pacific Railway]] started building the [[Hannibal Bridge]], a [[swing bridge]] across the [[Missouri River]] between [[Kansas City, Missouri]], and [[Kansas City, Kansas]], which connected railroads on both sides of the Missouri while still allowing passage of [[paddle steamer]]s on the river. After completion, this became another major east–west railroad. To speed completion of the [[Kansas Pacific Railroad]] to Denver, construction started east from Denver in March 1870 to meet the railroad coming west from Kansas city. The two crews met at a point called Comanche Crossing, Kansas Territory, on August 15, 1870. Denver was now firmly on track to becoming the largest city and the future capital of [[Colorado]]. The [[Kansas Pacific Railroad]] linked with the [[Denver Pacific Railway]] via Denver to Cheyenne in 1870.

The original transcontinental railroad route did not pass through the two biggest cities in the so-called [[Great American Desert]]—[[Denver, Colorado]], and [[Salt Lake City, Utah]]. Feeder railroad lines were soon built to service these two and other cities and states along the route.

Modern-day [[Interstate 80]] roughly follows the path of the railroad from Sacramento across modern day California, Nevada, Wyoming and Nebraska, with a few exceptions. Most significantly, the two routes are different between Wells, Nevada, and [[Echo, Utah]]. In this area the freeway passes along the south shore of the [[Great Salt Lake]] and passes through [[Salt Lake City]], cresting the [[Wasatch Mountains]] at [[Parley's Summit]]. The railroad was originally routed along the north shore, and later with the [[Lucin Cutoff]] directly across the center of the Great Salt Lake, passing through the city of [[Ogden, Utah|Ogden]] instead of Salt Lake City. The railroad crosses the Wasatch Mountains via a much gentler grade through [[Weber Canyon]]. Most of the other deviations are in mountainous areas where [[Interstate Highway standards|interstate highways]] allow for grades up to six-percent grades, which allows them to go many places the railroads had to go around, since their goal was to hold their grades to less than two percent.