Map Showing the Union Pacific Railway

The Union Pacific Railway just over 30 years after it was first approved by Abraham Lincoln.

Originally organized under the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, the Union Pacific Railroad was to head westward from Council Bluffs, Iowa to meet the line of the Central Pacific, under construction eastward from Sacramento, California. They connected in 1869, near Promontory Point, Utah, and the nation’s First Transcontinental Railroad opened for business.

Subsequent expansion was derailed by the Credit Mobilier Scandal of 1873, in which the primary construction agent of the U.P. deliberately overcharged the railroad, the costs of which were then passed onto the federal government. Bankruptcy was avoided, and in 1880 Jay Gould acquired a controlling interest in the company and combined it with the Kansas Pacific and Denver Pacific railroads, creating a new Union Pacific Railway Co.

This map was created by G.W. & C.B. Colton & Company of New York and published three years later, in 1883, the year prior to the network’s expansion into the Pacific Northwest. The primary route of the Union Pacific Railway is highlighted in a faded red, while the controlled routes, both completed and projected/under construction, are shown in blue. Competitor’s lines are also shown. Geographic features, settlements, military fortifications, and other details are noted throughout the image, providing for a fascinating overview of the western United States during the Gilded Age.

Originally designed, copywritten, and published by C.W. & G.B. Colton in 1883 as part of a stockholder’s report on the Union Pacific Railway. Printing was performed by Rufus Adams & Company, also in New York.

Source: Timeline of the Union Pacific Railroad.