America's first transcontinental railroad was a 1,911-mile (3,075 km) continuous railroad line built 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 U.S. land grants. Building was financed by both state and U.S. 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.
Box Elder County is a county at the northwestern corner of Utah, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 57,666, up from the 2010 figure of 49,975. Its county seat and largest city is Brigham City. The county was named for the box elder trees that abound in the county.
Howell is a town located in the Blue Creek Valley in northeast Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 245 at the 2010 census.
Promontory Point may refer to:
Promontory is an area of high ground in Box Elder County, Utah, United States, 32 mi (51 km) west of Brigham City and 66 mi (106 km) northwest of Salt Lake City. Rising to an elevation of 4,902 feet (1,494 m) above sea level, it lies to the north of the Promontory Mountains and the Great Salt Lake. It is notable as the location of Promontory Summit, where the First transcontinental railroad from Sacramento to Omaha in the United States was officially completed on May 10, 1869. The location is sometimes confused with Promontory Point, a location further south along the southern tip of the Promontory Mountains. Both locations are significant to the Overland Route; Promontory Summit is where the original, abandoned alignment crossed the Promontory Mountains while the modern alignment, called the Lucin Cutoff, crosses the mountains at Promontory Point.
Golden Spike National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake in east-central Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The nearest city is Corinne, approximately 23 miles (37 km) east-southeast of the site.
The Pequop Mountains are a mountain range located in eastern Elko County, in northeastern Nevada in the western United States. The range runs generally north-south for approximately 51 miles (82 km) The high point of the range is an unnamed peak located at 40°55.46'N and 114°35.38'W.
Rusk Mountain is a peak located in the towns of Jewett and Lexington in Greene County, New York, United States. At 3,680 feet (1,120 m) in elevation, it is the 20th-highest peak in the Catskill Mountains and considered a member of the Catskill High Peaks. While there is no maintained trail, a bushwhack to the summit is considered relatively easy, and required for membership in the Catskill Mountain 3500 Club.
Interstate 15 (I-15) runs north–south in the U.S. state of Utah through the southwestern and central portions of the state, passing through most of the state's population centers, including St. George and those comprising the Wasatch Front: Provo–Orem, Salt Lake City, and Ogden–Clearfield. It is Utah's primary and only north–south interstate highway, as the vast majority of the state's population lives along its corridor; the Logan metropolitan area is the state's only Metropolitan Statistical Area through which I-15 does not pass. In 1998, the Utah State Legislature designated Utah's entire portion of the road as the Veterans Memorial Highway.
Park Valley is an unincorporated community in north-central Box Elder County, Utah, United States.
Brace Mountain is the peak of a ridge in the southern Taconic Mountains, near the tripoint of the U.S. states of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Its 2,311-foot (704 m) main summit is located in New York; it is the highest point in that state's Dutchess County.
The Overland Route was a train route operated jointly by the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad/Southern Pacific Railroad, between the eastern termini of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska, and the San Francisco Bay Area, over the grade of the first transcontinental railroad which opened on May 10, 1869. Passenger trains that operated over the line included the Overland Flyer, later renamed the Overland Limited, which also included a connection to Chicago.
The Promontory Mountains are a range in Box Elder County, Utah. The range is oriented north–south and has a length of about 35 miles (56 km). The southern portion forms a cape extending 20 miles (32 km) south into the Great Salt Lake. The First transcontinental railroad was completed with the Golden Spike just north of the range at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory. Today, trains cross the Promontory Point at the southern tip of the range via the Lucin Cutoff railroad causeway across the lake.
The Cedar Valley of Iron County, Utah, United States is a 25-mile (40 km) long valley located in the southeast of the county, against the Hurricane Cliffs which border the Cedar Mountains and the Markagunt Plateau.
The Black Mountains is a 30-mile (48 km) long mountain range in northeastern Iron County and southeastern Beaver County in southwestern Utah, United States.
Buckskin Mountain is a 16-mile (26 km) mountain ridge that spans from Coconino County, Arizona to Kane County, Utah in the United States, that is divided almost equally between the two counties.
Ibapah Peak is a 12,087-foot (3,684 m) summit in Juab County, Utah in the United States. It is the highest point of the Deep Creek Range and is located less than 5 miles (8.0 km) east of the Utah-Nevada border, and about 10 miles (16 km) northwest of the town of Trout Creek, Utah. With a topographic prominence of 5,247 feet (1,599 m) it is the eighth-most prominent summit in Utah.
Promontory Point is a ghost town in Box Elder County, Utah, United States, that is located about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) northeast of the cape with the same name.
The Transcontinental Railroad Grade is a section of railway in northwest Utah, near Corinne, Utah, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The tracklaying race of 1869 was an unofficial contest between tracklaying crews of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, held during the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. The competition was to determine who would first reach the meeting place at Promontory, Utah. Starting in 1868, the railroad crews set, and subsequently broke, each other's world records for the longest length of track laid in a single day. This culminated in the April 28, 1869, record set by Chinese and Irish crews of the Central Pacific who laid 10 miles 56 feet (16.111 km) of track in one day. That record was broken in August 1870, by about 1,000 feet (300 m), by two crews of the Kansas Pacific, working from opposite ends of the same track.
