Trans-Siberian Railway Similar to the First Transcontinental Railroad in the US, Russian engineers started construction at both ends and worked towards the centre. From Vladivostok the railway was laid north along the right bank of the Ussuri River to Khabarovsk at the Amur River, becoming the Ussuri Railway. In 1890, a bridge across the Ural River was built and the new railway entered Asia. The bridge across the Ob River was built in 1898 and the small city of Novonikolaevsk, founded in 1883, grew into the large Siberian city of Novosibirsk. In 1898 the first train reached Irkutsk and the shores of
Babushkin (town) Babushkin (town) Babushkin (), known as Mysovsk () before 1941, is a town in Kabansky District of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the southern shore of Lake Baikal on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Population: 9,000 (1967). It was founded in 1892 as a postal station Mysovaya (), its name derived from the Russian word "Mys" meaning "cape", referring to its location on the shores of Lake Baikal. A few years later it was chosen as the eastern terminus for the train ferry across Lake Baikal, which was used as part of the Trans-Siberian Railway until the rail line around