the central pacific began building the transcontinental railroad at panama railroad across the isthmus of panama.
the central pacific began building the transcontinental railroad at panama railroad across the isthmus of panama.
where did the central pacific begin building the transcontinental railroad?
panama railroad across the isthmus of panama
a series of transcontinental railroads built over the last third of the 19th century created a nationwide transportation network that united the country by rail. the first of these, the "pacific railroad", was built by the central pacific railroad and union pacific railroad to link the san francisco bay at alameda, california, with the nation's existing eastern railroad network at council bluffs, iowa/omaha, nebraska, thereby creating the world's first transcontinental railroad when it opened in 1869. its construction was made possible by the us government under pacific railroad acts of 1862, 1864, and 1867.









































section::::northern america.:united states of america.:transcontinental railroad.
transcontinental railroad
montague was appointed chief engineer of the central pacific railroad in 1863 after the death of theodore judah. he was responsible for building the western half of the first transcontinental railroad. he was a confidant of leland stanford the founder of stanford university, governor of california and one of the "big four" who directed the central pacific railroad. samuel was one of stanford's "inner circle". he was the engineer charged with directing the locating, designing and building the western section of the transcontinental railroad that linked the west and east coasts of the united states, that linked promontory summit, utah, to sacramento, california. montague was assisted by his fellow engineers lewis m. clement and james harvey strobridge. montague directed the engineering work on the central pacific which involved the work of thousands of chinese as well as their "white" surveyors, engineers, coordinators, supervisors, etc. as they crossed the sierra nevada over donner pass. it was a monumental engineering undertaking. in the famous "golden spike" celebration photo of 1869 in which a central pacific locomotive and a union pacific locomotive are touching "nose-to-nose" at promontory, utah. the two men shaking hands at the center of this photograph are samuel s. montague chief engineer for the central pacific and grenville m. dodge, chief engineer for the union pacific. samuel in about 1869 became one of eight officers of the central pacific railroad. in addition to the transcontinental railroad, he was chief engineer during the construction of numerous other railroad lines in california that central pacific and later the expanded southern pacific railroad continued to build.
samuel s. montague