query: When was the first US transcontinental railroad completed?
passage: First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad (also called the Great Transcontinental Railroad, known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route") was a 1,912-mile (3,077km) continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay.[1] The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants.[2] Construction was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds.[3][4][5][N 1] The Western Pacific Railroad Company built 132mi (212km) of track from Oakland/Alameda to Sacramento, California. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) constructed 690mi (1,110km) eastward from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory (U.T.). The Union Pacific built 1,085mi (1,746km) from the road's eastern terminus at Council Bluffs near Omaha, Nebraska westward to Promontory Summit.[7][8][9]
passage: Sheldon Jackson
Jackson's travels took him throughout the American West. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, a huge territory was opened to him. In the summer of 1869, Jackson went on a missionary tour using the railroad and stage lines, establishing a church a day.