North America's first transcontinental railroad was a 1,911-mile (3,075 km) continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Building was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds. The Western Pacific Railroad Company built 132 miles (212 km) of track from the road's western terminus at Alameda/Oakland to Sacramento, California. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) constructed 690 miles (1,110 km) east from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. The Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) built 1,085 miles (1,746 km) from the road's eastern terminus at the Missouri River settlements of Council Bluffs and Omaha, Nebraska westward to Promontory Summit.
Troy is a city in Lincoln County, Montana, United States. The population was 797 at the 2020 census. It lies at the lowest elevation of any settlement in Montana. The town is on U.S. Route 2, near Montana Highway 56, in the Kootenai River gorge by the Kootenai National Forest.
The Great Northern Railway was an American Class I railroad. Running from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, it was the creation of 19th-century railroad entrepreneur James J. Hill and was developed from the Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad. The Great Northern's route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the U.S.
The Flathead Tunnel, also known as the Breakfast Tunnel, is a 7-mile-long (11 km) railroad tunnel in the Rocky Mountains of northwest Montana near Trego, approximately 28 miles (45 km) west of Whitefish. Located on the BNSF Kootenai River Subdivision, it is the second-longest railroad tunnel in the United States after the Cascade Tunnel.
The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad constructed through the Allegheny Mountains in central Pennsylvania, United States; it operated from 1834 to 1854 as the first transportation infrastructure through the gaps of the Allegheny that connected the midwest to the eastern seaboard across the barrier range of the Allegheny Front. Approximately 36 miles (58 km) long overall, both ends connected to the Pennsylvania Canal, and the system was primarily used as a portage railway, hauling river boats and barges over the divide between the Ohio and the Susquehanna Rivers. Today, the remains of the railroad are preserved within the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service.
A horseshoe curve is a class of climbing curve in a roadbed which reverses turn direction (inflection) twice on either side of a single tight curve that varies through an angle of about 180 degrees or more.
Stevens Pass is a mountain pass through the Cascade Mountains located at the border of King County and Chelan County in Washington, United States. U.S. Route 2 travels over the pass, reaching a maximum elevation of 4,061 feet (1,238 m). The Pacific Crest Trail crosses the highway at Stevens Pass. The BNSF Railway's Cascade Tunnel lies 1,180 feet (400 m) below the pass summit.
Bozeman Pass el. 5,702 feet (1,738 m) is a mountain pass situated approximately 13 miles (21 km) east of Bozeman, Montana and approximately 15 miles (24 km) west of Livingston, Montana on Interstate 90. It separates the Bridger and Gallatin mountain ranges.
Tennessee Pass elevation 10,424 ft (3,177 m) is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The pass was named after Tennessee, the native state of a group of early prospectors.
The Colorado Midland Railway, incorporated in 1883, was the first standard gauge railroad built over the Continental Divide in Colorado. It ran from Colorado Springs to Leadville and through the divide at Hagerman Pass to Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction.
Interstate 80 (I-80) traverses the northern portion of the US state of Nevada. The freeway serves the Reno metropolitan area and passes through the towns of Fernley, Lovelock, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Carlin, Elko, Wells, and West Wendover on its way through the state.
The Northern Transcon, a route operated by the BNSF Railway, traverses the most northerly route of any railroad in the western United States. This route was originally part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Northern Pacific Railway, Great Northern Railway and Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway systems, merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad system in 1970.
The Fisher River is a tributary of the Kootenay River in the U.S. state of Montana. The Fisher River properly begins at the confluence of its two main tributaries, the Pleasant Valley Fisher River and the Silver Butte Fisher River. Of the two tributaries, the Pleasant Valley Fisher River is the larger and is sometimes considered part of the Fisher River proper. A variant name of the Fisher River is Pleasant Valley River, and a variant name of the Pleasant Valley Fisher River is Fisher River.
Interstate 90 (I-90) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway that runs east–west across the northern United States. Within the state of Idaho, the freeway travels for 74 miles (119 km) from the Washington border near Spokane to Coeur d'Alene and the panhandle region at the north end of the state. After traveling through the Silver Valley along the Coeur d'Alene River in the Bitterroot Range, I-90 crosses into Montana at Lookout Pass.
U.S. Highway 2 is an east–west United States Numbered Highway in the state of Montana. It extends approximately 666.6 miles (1,072.8 km) from the Idaho state line east to the North Dakota state line.
Fourth of July Summit is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of the northwestern United States, located in northern Idaho. Its elevation is 3,428 feet (1,045 m) above sea level on Interstate 90 in central Kootenai County, east of the city of Coeur d'Alene.
Marion is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Flathead County, Montana, United States. Its population was 886 as of the 2010 census. Marion has a post office with ZIP code 59925.
The St. Paul Pass Tunnel was a railway tunnel in the northwest United States at St. Paul Pass, on the Montana-Idaho border. The tunnel was on the main line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, commonly known as "The Milwaukee Road."
The Cracon du Nez occasionally also misspelled as the Crocon du Nez, is a sharp sided ridge that divides the Teton River and the Missouri River in Chouteau County, Montana, at a point where the increasing erosion at a large bend of the Missouri River has caused the two rivers to be a mere third of a mile apart. The Cracon du Nez ridge is an example of Missouri River stream bank erosion developing toward a future "stream capture" of the Teton River flow. A trail runs along the top of the ridge, where in 1865 Little Dog, a chief of the Piegan Blackfoot tribe was ambushed and killed by rebellious and jealous warriors from his own Piegan band. An abandoned railroad tunnel runs under the ridge, part of the former Montana Central Railway branch line of the Great Northern railroad running from Havre to Fort Benton, Great Falls, Helena and Butte. U.S. Highway 87 passes by the ridge and allows the traveler to see the Cracon du Nez. The name is derived from the French and means bridge of the nose, and was probably given by the French boatmen who comprised keelboat crews in the fur trade in the upper Missouri River in Montana during the early decades of the 1800s.
The Mission Mountain Railroad is a shortline railroad in northwestern Montana, operating two segments of the former Great Northern Railway since December 2004. MMT is a subsidiary of Watco, operator of several other shortline railroads.
