G.W. & C.B. Colton's map of the Union Pacific Railroad and its branch lines. From 1888.
| Map of Union Pacific R.R. | |
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| Date: | 1888 |
| Author: | G.W. & C.B. Colton & Co. |
| Dwnld: | Full Size (13mb) |
| Print Availability: | |
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| See our Prints Page for more details | |
This map isn't part of any series, but we have other railroad maps that you might want to check out.
Map of the Union Pacific railway and branch lines from 1888.
I'm afraid that I'm not all that knowledgeable, past the very basics, of our country's rail history. The best we can hope for is that some benevolent Railfans find my pages and leave some helpful comments. I'd be curious to learn more.
This one bears another interesting facet of the “Transcontinental” story. Under the Pacific Railroad Act, the two companies (eventually the Union Pacific and Central Pacific) had to reach certain goals before they qualified for government land grants, which provided the financial support to complete the construction. (Railroads were usually built in settled regions and found support from passengers and freight along the way; this would not be possible in the Western Territories until the routes approached completion.)
The Union Pacific was in competition against several other companies building westward from the then-limits of the Eastern railroad network, along the lower portions of the Missouri River. The Pacific Railroad Act stipulated that the land grants designated for the company building westward would be triggered by reaching longitude 100 degrees west, which is labeled on this map and is near the western ends of Nebraska and Kansas. (The Central Pacific, building eastward from California, had a much easier criteria; they had to reach a certain elevation in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.)