In 1863 the Central Pacific Railroad began construction in Sacramento and the Union Pacific Railroad began construction in Omaha. The two companies, starting at both ends, met in the middle on May 10, 1869, when dignitaries representing both companies participated in a ceremony marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States of America. Establishing railroad service connecting the east coast to the west coast dramatically changed the face of America's future. The idea for the project was born decades before it came to fruition, and the story of the price that was paid, the struggles, set backs and opposition is unique in all of American history.

While a transcontinental railroad had been dreamed of, talked of, and even investigated to the tune of $150,000 at one point, it was not until Theodore Judah completed a survey of a possible rail route from Sacramento to Folsom in 1854 that real progress began to be made. Judah lobbied Congress for funding from 1854 to 1860, and in addition searched diligently for other funding. In1861, a group of seven men financed a survey that looked promising, and funding was approved in 1862. Work was set to begin in 1863. Theodore Judah died that same year and never saw the completion of his dream. Four of the seven men formed a corporation and became the Central Pacific's "Big Four", Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker. The Union Pacific Railroad Company was founded at Chicago in 1862, and the main driving force for the transcontinental project from the east was Dr. Thomas Clark Durant.

Thousands of Irishmen worked on the Union Pacific, and tens of thousands of Chinese workers on the western side.

While the railroad companies were ecstatic, and while settlers, travelers, prospectors and anyone else with a bent for travel benefited greatly, not everyone was a winner. Seemingly infinite herds of American Bison, were decimated by trains and the hunters that they carried, and the Native Americans may have fared even worse.