Union Pacific Railroad The railroad company that helped build the transcontinental link connecting the East and West Coasts in 1869. Impetus for creation of the company was given by Congress in the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, which authorized the building of a rail line by private carriers that would connect both coasts. | U Union Pacific Railroad The railroad company that helped build the transcontinental link connecting the East and West Coasts in 1869. Impetus for creation of the company was given by Congress in the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 which authorized the building of a rail line by private carriers that would connect both coasts. Throughout its early history the company was plagued by scandal as well as engineering success. The company that completed the massive building job was founded by Oakes Ames Oliver Ames and Thomas Durant. They invested some of their personal fortunes into an effort that was floundering until they became involved. They were charged with building the eastern link of the rail connection westward from Nebraska while the Central Pacific Railroad built the western link eastward from California. Both companies took over the job from earlier companies that had started building lines but never completed them. The building took six years and occupied more than 20 000 men mostly immigrants from Europe and China. It became the most daunting engineering and construction project yet undertaken in the United States. One river the Weber had to be crossed 31 times. The two lines were connected at Promontory Point Utah Territory on May 10 1869. The original trip from New York to San Francisco took 10 days. After the work was complete the Crédit Mobilier scandal erupted concerning the financing of the railway In 1872 it was revealed that the construction firm that built the road named after a French finance company and bank had embezzled millions of dollars of government-provided funds raising the cost of construction substantially. The result left the Union Pacific heavily in debt and it was forced into bankruptcy in 1893 during a depression that also forced many other railroads and businesses to close. Jay Gould controlled the railroad until 1892 when he died passing ownership to his son George. The company was resurrected as the Union Pacific Railroad Company .
