Networks and Operators

Union Pacific Railroad

Citation Formats

General Reference

Transport Atlas. "Union Pacific Railroad." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-transport.interactiveatlas.org/networks/union-pacific-railroad.

APA Style

Transport Atlas. (n.d.). Union Pacific Railroad. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-transport.interactiveatlas.org/networks/union-pacific-railroad

BibTeX

@misc{transportatlas-union-pacific-railroad,
  author = {Transport Atlas},
  title = {Union Pacific Railroad},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-transport.interactiveatlas.org/networks/union-pacific-railroad},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

American railroad chartered by the United States Congress in 1862 to build the eastern portion of the first transcontinental railroad. Its track met the Central Pacific Railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah, on 10 May 1869, joining the American rail network coast to coast for the first time. It remains one of the largest freight railroads in North America.

Facts

Founded Year

1862 1

Significance

Built the eastern half of the first transcontinental railroad in North America, completed in 1869; the company remains a major freight operator, running roughly 8,300 locomotives over 32,200 miles of route across 23 U.S. states. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Operates

First Transcontinental Railroad

Union Pacific built the eastern half, from Council Bluffs, and is this atlas's existing network entity for the line; the Central Pacific, its westward-building partner, has no live network entity on this atlas yet, a gap left for a future wave rather than invented here.

Source Wikipedia: First Transcontinental Railroad