Transcontinental Railroad: Sources

Timeline

Talk about building the railroad begins (1830)
Asa Whitney encourages the building of the railroad (1845)
Theodore Judah writes 13,000 word proposal in support of the railroad (1856)
The Big Four agree to finance the Central Pacific Railroad (1860)
The Pacific Railroad Act is approved and then signed by Lincoln (1862)
Ground broken at Omaha and Sacramento (Jan. 8, 1863)
2,000 Chinese workers hired by the Central Pac. (1865)
Workers begin blowing out Donner Summit (1866)
The Central Pac. complete Donner Summit (August 29, 1867)
Union Pac. had laid down 300 miles of track and the Central Pac. only 80 miles (end of 1867)
Central Pac. runs first passenger train from Sac, California to Reno, Nevada (June 18, 1868)
The "Jupiter" heads to Promontory Summit from Sacramento carrying Leland Stanford (May 5, 1869)
The "Jupiter" arrives at Promontory Summit, but Union Pac. is late (May 7, 1869)
California celebrates completion of the railroad (May 8, 1869)
The Union Pacific's train "#119" arrives and the golden spike is driven in (May 10, 1869)
A train called the Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco only 83 hours and 39 minutes after it left from New York City (June 4, 1876)