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4 unusual facts about Central Pacific Railroad


Central Pacific

Central Pacific Railroad, the western part of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States

Harrison Tweed

He was the son of Charles Harrison Tweed, the general counsel for the Central Pacific Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio and other affiliated railroad corporations, and his wife, (Helen) Minerva Evarts.

Mormon Settlement Techniques of the Salt Lake Valley

The presence of the Saints in the valley was useful in the concluding efforts of the Transcontinental Railroad, where Promontory, Utah served as the connecting point of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines.

Slavery in China

Mistreatment ranged from the near-slave conditions maintained by some crimps and traders in the mid-1800s in Hawaii and Cuba to the relatively dangerous tasks given to the Chinese during the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s.


Central Branch Union Pacific Railroad

Despite its name, the Central Branch Union Pacific was not associated with the Union Pacific until 1880; it was to be one of several eastern branches of the First Transcontinental Railroad, of which the Union Pacific constituted the main line between Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska and Ogden, Utah where it connected with the Central Pacific Railroad.

Charles Roscoe Savage

He photographed the linking of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific on Promontory Summit, at Promontory, Utah in 1869.

Corinne, Utah

As the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads approached their historic meeting place at Promontory Summit early in 1869, a group of former Union Army officers and some determined non-Mormon merchants from Salt Lake City decided to locate a Gentile town on the Union Pacific line, believing that the town could compete economically and politically with the Saints of Utah.

Edwin B. Crocker

The next year, Crocker agreed to serve as legal counsel for the Central Pacific Railroad, a company run by the Big Four, which included Edwin's younger brother, Charles Crocker.

Francis K. Shattuck

Shattuck was instrumental in getting the Central Pacific Railroad to construct a branch line into Berkeley in 1876 connecting the community and University of California with the main line and the railroad's ferry to San Francisco.

James J. Kenney

Kenney Sr. died and his son was taken in by one of the boy's aunts, Mrs. Sarah (Kenney) Landers who operated a concession at the Berkeley Station of the Central Pacific's Berkeley Branch line on Shattuck Avenue in what became the downtown section of Berkeley.

Kansas Pacific Railway

The Golden spike event in Utah the previous year had marked the linking of the Union Pacific with the Central Pacific Railroad, but until 1872, passengers on the Union Pacific were required to disembark between Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska to cross the Missouri River by boat.

Nob Hill, San Francisco

The hotels were named for three of The Big Four, four entrepreneurs of the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad: Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins & Collis P. Huntington.

This included prominent tycoons such as Leland Stanford, founder of Stanford University and other members of The Big Four.

Verdi-Mogul, Nevada

Verdi was named after Giuseppe Verdi by Charles Crocker, founder of the Central Pacific Railroad, pulling a slip of paper from a hat and reading the name of the Italian opera composer.


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