Union Pacific Railroad Company
FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD (COMPLETED MAY 10, 1869)
The Union Pacific Railroad Company built the eastern portion of America’s First Transcontinental Railroad. They began work on July 10, 1865, and hired about 8,000 laborers who were German, Italian but mostly Irish. Many were veterans of the Civil War. While building their 1,086 miles of track from Omaha, Nebraska to Promontory Summit, Utah, Union Pacific faced many confrontations with the First Nations on whose homes the railroad was encroaching.
(Drawing by Cathy Nguyen, SFSU 2017)