What two companies got together to create a transcontinental railroad completed in 1869?

Question

In what city did the rails created by these two companies meet?
What continent did this railroad go across?

Answer 1

Union Pacific and Central Pacific
Met at Promontory Point, Utah May 10, 1869 (near Ogden, Utah)
North American continent

Answer 2

Union Pacific and Central Pacific
Met at Promontory Point, Utah May 10, 1869 in Utah in North America

Answer 3

The Union Pacific, based in Omaha and moving west. The Southern Pacific based in Sacramento and moving east. The provisions of Congressional funding paid for each mile of track laid, and they got land rights to the right-of-way of that track. There was no compelling reason for them to agree on a meeting point. By April, 1869, the surveyors had already passed each other, and in early May tracklayers had too. Brigham Young governor of Utah Territory wanted them to meet in Ogden. Congress didn't want to hand this economic bonanza to Young, with the chance he could exert political influence on the railroads, so they nominated surveyors to pick a spot.
They chose Promontory Summit (not "Point" as most people assume, that's actually about 15 miles south), 35 miles west of Brigham City UT. This was, and is, almost in the middle of nowhere.
Much of the original railroad bed is still visible in spots in Nevada, Nebraska, and especially in UT.

Answer 4

transcontinental railroad, in U.S. historic previous, rail connection with the Pacific coast. In 1845, Asa Whitney provided to Congress a plan for the federal government to subsidize the construction of a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific. The contract of the Oregon boundary in 1846, the acquisition of western territories from Mexico in 1848, and the invention of gold in California (1849) bigger help for the project; in 1853, Congress appropriated money to survey countless proposed routes. opposition over the path became extreme, although, and whilst Senator Stephen Douglas presented (1854) his Kansas-Nebraska Act, meant to win acclaim for a line from Chicago, the resultant sectional controversy between North and South forced a postpone interior the plans. for the time of the Civil war, a Republican-controlled Congress enacted law (July a million, 1862) offering for shape of a transcontinental line. The regulation on condition that the railroad be equipped by ability of two companies; each won federal land provides you of 10 replace sections consistent with mile on the two factors of the line (the quantity became doubled in 1864) and a 30-365 days government loan for each mile of music built. In 1863 the Union Pacific RR began shape from Omaha, Nebr., mutually as the important Pacific broke floor at Sacramento, Calif. the two traces met at Promontory Summit, Utah, and on would 10, 1869, a golden spike joined the two railways, thus winding up the 1st transcontinental railroad. Others accompanied. 3 added traces have been finished in 1883: the Northern Pacific RR stretched from Lake extra proper to Portland, Oreg.; the Santa Fe prolonged from Atchison, Kans., to la; and the Southern Pacific related la with New Orleans. A 5th line, the super Northern, became executed in 1893. each of those companies won extensive provides you of land, whether none obtained government loans. The promise of land commonly resulted in shoddy shape that throughout the time of basic terms later became repaired, and scandals, mutually with Crédit Mobilier (see Crédit Mobilier of u.s.), weren't rare. The transcontinental railroads immeasurably aided the settling of the west and hastened the last of the frontier. additionally they extra speedy economic growth as mining, farming, and livestock-raising stepped forward alongside the main traces and their branches. atp