The original company, Union Pacific Rail Road (UPRR), was created and funded by the federal government by Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864. The laws were passed as war measures to forge closer ties with California and Oregon, which otherwise took six months to reach.

Union Pacific reached a tentative crew consist agreement with General Committee 953, part of its largest union, The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD).

Union Pacific Railroad Company is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP). We are one of America's most recognized companies, with a heritage of building the country and a vision to keep doing so.

Founded July 1, 1862, when President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, Union Pacific has been building America for more than 160 years.

For many, a railroad was considered the key to westward expansion and the future of the country. A transcontinental route would greatly reduce the time it took to cross the continent, develop the nation's vast interior, encourage settlement, promote trade and fuel industry.

national railways, rail transportation services owned and operated by national governments. U.S. railways are privately owned and operated, though the Consolidated Rail Corporation was established by the federal government and Amtrak uses public funds to subsidize privately owned intercity passenger trains.

John Stevens is considered to be the father of American railroads. In 1826 Stevens demonstrated the feasibility of steam locomotion on a circular experimental track constructed on his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey, three years before George Stephenson perfected a practical steam locomotive in England.

Sixteenth president of the United States. In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law, directing the Union Pacific and Central Pacific to build the nation's first transcontinental railroad.

Railways were introduced in England in the seventeenth century as a way to reduce friction in moving heavily loaded wheeled vehicles. The first North American "gravity road," as it was called, was erected in 1764 for military purposes at the Niagara portage in Lewiston, New York.

Abraham Lincoln In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law, directing the Union Pacific and Central Pacific to build the nation's first transcontinental railroad.

The railroad opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of town and communities, and generally tied the country together.

The transcontinental railroad was built in six years almost entirely by hand. Workers drove spikes into mountains, filled the holes with black powder, and blasted through the rock inch by inch. Handcarts moved the drift from cuts to fills.