Transport & space · 1869

Transcontinental railroad

A golden spike joins the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the US by rail.

The Central Pacific and Union Pacific met at Promontory Summit, Utah, on 10 May 1869, completing about 3,000 km of new track. Coast-to-coast travel fell from months to about a week. The telegraph line alongside announced the finish instantly to the whole nation.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Electric telegraph 1837
Intercity railway 1830

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

US railway network length Latest: 231k km (1993) Source: Our World in Data

Selected milestones in human travel speed Latest: 39.9k km/h (1969) Source: Wikipedia: Horse gait (gallop 40-48 km/h); Wikipedia: List of speed records in rail transport