Union Pacific Railroad

The Union Pacific Railroad was the eastern section of America’s first transcontinental railroad, running westward from Omaha, Nebraska for 1,085 miles to join with the Central Pacific Railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah. When completed with the golden spike on May 10, 1869, the transcontinental railroad allowed passengers to travel west from coast to coast in a span of just seven days, compared with what previously took up to six months to travel by wagon.

Although groundbreaking for the Union Pacific Railroad took place on December 2, 1863, by the end of 1865 only 40 miles of track had been laid west of Omaha. This changed soon after Grenville M. Dodge was hired as chief engineer of the railroad in the spring of 1866. A former Major General in the Union Army during the Civil War, Dodge used his military experience to efficiently mobilize the railroad’s workforce and by the end of the year the length of track grew to more than 300 miles. Three different waves of workers were used in construction: first were the civil engineers who surveyed the route; second were the graders who constructed the roadbed; and third were the workers who laid down the wooden ties and spiked down the iron rails.

One of the most difficult engineering challenges in constructing the Union Pacific Railroad involved crossing Dale Creek in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory (now the Laramie Mts. and present day Wyoming) near Sherman Summit, which at an elevation of 8,237 feet was the highest point on the transcontinental railroad. A 650-foot long and 150-foot high wooden trestle was built over the canyon using timber shipped from the Midwest. To build the approaches leading to the bridge, workers had to blast through about one mile of granite rock on the eastern approach. When the trestle first opened, it would sway in the wind and trains had to slow to a speed of four miles per hour when crossing the canyon. The trestle was later replaced with a sturdier iron bridge in 1876 and subsequently abandoned in 1901 when the Union Pacific constructed a new alignment over the Sherman Summit that shortened the route of the railroad by about 30 miles.

The Union Pacific Railroad was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 2019. A plaque marking the designation is located at Kenefick Park in Omaha, Nebraska.