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Asa Whitney presents a proposal to Congress for the transportation system.
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Engineer Theodore Judah reaches Donner Pass and identifies the location as ideal for constructing a line through the Sierra Nevada.
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Lincoln signs the bill, authorizing the Central Pacific to build a California line east from Sacramento and establishing the Union Pacific Railroad Company with an order to build west from the Missouri River.
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The Central Pacific Railroad Company spikes its first rails to ties.
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The Union Pacific celebrates its groundbreaking in Omaha Nebraska.
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Congress recieves the Pacific Railroad Bill to double land grants and pass control of all natural resources located along the lines to the railroads an remove the exsisting limits on individual stock ownership.
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Charles Crocker starts to hire Chinese immigrants for Central Pacific.
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Union Pacific construction stops for the winter at the town of North Platte, Nebraska, which shortly explodes into the first "hell on wheels" town (the violent/ mobile encampment of dance halls, saloons, and gambling dens).
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A Golden Spike ceremony took place at Promontory Point, Utah. The tracks of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines were joined together
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Congressional investigation into the Crédit Mobilier scandal and the finances of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines produces public disillusionment with the railroads and elected officials.
