Editing First transcontinental railroad (section)

===Railroad developments===
[[File:CPRR & UPRR Display Ads May 1869.jpg|left|thumb|Display ads for the CPRR and UPRR the week the rails were joined on May 10, 1869]] [[File:Great Overland Route Timetable Cover 1881.JPG|thumb|left|UPRR & CPRR "Great American Over-Land Route" Timetable cover 1881]]

When the golden spike was driven, the rail network was not yet connected to the Atlantic or Pacific but merely connected [[Omaha, Nebraska]] to [[Sacramento, California]]. To get from Sacramento to the Pacific, the Central Pacific purchased in 1867 the struggling [[Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870)|Western Pacific Railroad]] (unrelated to the [[Western Pacific Railroad|railroad of the same name]] that would later parallel its route) and in February 1868 resumed construction on it, which had halted in October 1866 because of funding troubles. Upon completing the last link at the Mossdale crossing of the [[San Joaquin River]] on September 6, 1869,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Martin|first=Van Covert|date=1890|title=Railroad Bridges- San Joaquin County: First bridge across San Joaquin River. Central Pacific Railroad, built 1869. Replaced by Steel Bridge 1895. Mossdale Crossing|url=https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/hsp/8617|journal=Historic Stockton Photographs, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Libraries}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Olive |title=From the Ohio to the San Joaquin: a biography of Captain William S. Moss 1796-1883 |date=1991 |publisher=Heritage West Books |location=Stockton, California |isbn=0962304808 |page=209 (photo of Mossdale bridge) |quote=The Central Pacific Railroad bridge crossing the San Joaquin River at Mossdale, completed on September 6, 1869, was the first railroad connection linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.}}</ref> the first transcontinental rail passengers arrived at the Pacific Railroad's original western terminus on the [[East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)|east side of San Francisco Bay]] at the [[Alameda Terminal]], where they transferred to the steamer ''Alameda'' for transport across the Bay to San Francisco. On November 8, 1869, the Central Pacific finally completed the rail connection to its western terminus at [[Oakland, California]], also on the [[East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)|East Bay]], where [[Port of San Francisco|freight]] and [[San Francisco Ferry Building|passengers]] completed their transcontinental link to San Francisco by [[Ferries of San Francisco Bay|ferry]].

The original route from the [[Central Valley (California)|Central Valley]] to the [[San Francisco Bay|Bay]] skirted the [[Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta|Delta]] by heading south out of Sacramento through [[Stockton, California|Stockton]] and crossing the [[San Joaquin River]] at [[Lathrop, California|Mossdale]], then climbed over the [[Altamont Pass]] and reached the east side of the San Francisco Bay through [[Niles Canyon]]. The Western Pacific was originally chartered to go to [[San Jose, California|San Jose]], but the Central Pacific decided to build along the East Bay instead, as going from San Jose up the [[San Francisco Peninsula|Peninsula]] to [[San Francisco]] itself would have brought it into conflict with [[San Francisco and San Jose Railroad|competing interests]]. The railroad entered [[Alameda Terminal|Alameda]] and [[Oakland Point, Oakland, California|Oakland]] from the south, roughly paralleling what would later become [[U.S. Route 50 in California|U.S. Route 50]] and later still Interstates [[Interstate 5 in California|5]], [[Interstate 205 (California)|205]], and [[Interstate 580 (California)|580]]. A [[Capitol Corridor|more direct route]] was obtained with the purchase of the [[California Pacific Railroad]], crossing the [[Sacramento River]] and proceeding southwest through [[Davis, California|Davis]] to [[Benicia, California|Benicia]], where it crossed the [[Carquinez Strait]] by means of the enormous [[Solano (ferry)|Solano train ferry]], then followed the shores of the [[San Pablo Bay|San Pablo]] and [[San Francisco Bay|San Francisco]] bays to [[Richmond, California|Richmond]] and the [[Port of Oakland]] (paralleling [[U.S. Route 40 in California|U.S. Route 40]] which ultimately became [[Interstate 80 (California)|Interstate 80]]). In 1930, a [[Benicia–Martinez Bridge|rail bridge]] across the Carquinez replaced the Benicia ferries.

Very early on, the Central Pacific learned that it would have trouble maintaining an open track in winter across the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierras]]. At first they tried plowing the road with special snowplows mounted on their steam engines. When this was only partially successful, an extensive process of building [[snow shed]]s over some of the track was instituted to protect it from deep snows and avalanches. These eventually succeeded at keeping the tracks clear for all but a few days of the year.<ref>Central Pacific snow sheds [http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Summit_Tunnel_1999/index.html] accessed January 28, 2009.</ref>

Both railroads soon instituted extensive upgrade projects to build better bridges, viaducts and dugways as well as install heavier duty rails, stronger ties, better road beds etc. The original track had often been laid as fast as possible with only secondary attention to maintenance and durability. The primary incentive had been getting the subsidies, which meant that upgrades of all kinds were routinely required in the following years. The cost of making these upgrades was relatively small once the railroad was operating. Once the railroad was complete supplies could be moved from distant factories directly to the construction site by rail.

[[File:Crofutt's Trans-Continental Tourist's Guide Frontispiece 1870.jpg|thumb|right|Frontispiece of Crofutt's ''Great Trans-Continental Tourist's Guide'', 1870]]
The Union Pacific would not connect Omaha to Council Bluffs until completing the [[Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge]] in 1872.<ref>{{cite news|title=Omaha|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026844/1872-03-26/ed-1/seq-1/ |access-date=5 January 2017|work=The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer|date=March 26, 1872|location=Wheeling, West Virginia|page=1}}</ref>

Several years after the end of the Civil War, the competing railroads coming from Missouri finally realized their initial strategic advantage and a building boom ensued. In July 1869, the [[Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad]] finished the [[Hannibal Bridge]] in Kansas City which was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River. This in turn connected to [[Kansas Pacific]] trains going from Kansas City to Denver, which in turn had built the [[Denver Pacific Railway]] connecting to the Union Pacific. In August 1870, the Kansas Pacific drove the last spike connecting to the Denver Pacific line at [[Strasburg, Colorado]], and the first true Atlantic to Pacific United States railroad was completed.

Kansas City's head start in connecting to a true transcontinental railroad contributed to it rather than Omaha becoming the dominant rail center west of Chicago.

The Kansas Pacific became part of the Union Pacific in 1880.

On June 4, 1876, an express train called the ''[[Transcontinental Express]]'' arrived in San Francisco via the first transcontinental railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after it had left [[New York City]]. Only ten years before, the same journey would have taken months over land or weeks on ship, possibly all the way around South America.

The Central Pacific got a direct route to San Francisco when it was merged with the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]] to create the Southern Pacific Company in 1885. The Union Pacific initially took over the Southern Pacific in 1901 but was forced by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] to divest it because of monopoly concerns. The two railroads would once again unite in 1996 when the Southern Pacific was sold to the Union Pacific.

Having been bypassed with the completion of the [[Lucin Cutoff]] in 1904, the Promontory Summit rails were pulled up in 1942 to be recycled for the [[World War II|World War&nbsp;II]] effort. This process began with a ceremonial "undriving" at the Last Spike location.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/40/hh40r.htm| title=Promontory After May 10, 1869| author=United States National Park Service| date=2002-09-28| access-date=2007-05-10| archive-date=June 10, 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610072243/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/40/hh40r.htm| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Transcontinental Railroad's Impact on World War II {{!}} Trains Magazine |url=https://www.trains.com/trn/railroads/history/the-transcontinental-railroads-impact-on-world-war-ii/ |website=Trains |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210518014815/https://www.trains.com/trn/railroads/history/the-transcontinental-railroads-impact-on-world-war-ii/ |archive-date=May 18, 2021 |date=March 5, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>