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Promontory, Utah was the setting for the connection of the Central Pacific Railroad, originating in Sacramento, California, to the Union Pacific Railroad, running from Omaha, Nebraska, creating what was called the First Transcontinental Railroad (also known as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route"). The final ceremonial golden spike was driven in on May 10, 1869, a little over six years after construction had begun.

The railroad as first completed was not actually transcontinental because its eastern end was only about halfway across the country, stopped by the Missouri River. (It also did not initially reach the Pacific Coast, but the Central Pacific extended its line from Sacramento to the port of Oakland, CA, on San Francisco Bay only six months later). Omaha on the western bank of the Missouri River was not connected by a railroad line to Council Bluffs, Iowa on the eastern side of the River until 1873; before that, trains had to be loaded onto a ferry, boated across the river, and then reloaded on the tracks on the other side. The first true Atlantic-to-Pacific railroad was completed in 1870, by the Kansas Pacific line, which had completed the first railroad bridge to cross the Missouri River, at Kansas City, a year earlier.

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