Central Pacific breaks ground at Sacramento
January 8, 1863, Sacramento, California.
- Date
- January 8, 1863
- Where
- Sacramento, California
- What happened
- Built
- Event
- 60 of 174
Governor Leland Stanford ceremonially broke ground in Sacramento to begin the Central Pacific, chartered under the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. Nearly all its rails, switches, cars and locomotives came by ship from the east coast, around Cape Horn or across the Isthmus of Panama. The line met the Union Pacific at Promontory Summit six years later.