First Transcontinental Railroad—Truckee

First Transcontinental Railroad—Truckee is a California Historical Landmark in Truckee, Nevada County.

SP Depot, Truckee · location approximate

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While construction on Sierra tunnels delayed Central Pacific, advance forces at Truckee began building 40 miles of track east and west of Truckee, moving all supplies by wagon and sled. Summit Tunnel was opened in December 1867. The line reached Truckee April 3, 1868, and the Sierra was conquered. Rails reached Reno June 19, and construction advanced eastward one mile daily toward the meeting with Union Pacific at Promontory (Utah) May 10, 1869, to complete the first transcontinental railroad.

1971 register text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people; the state's landmark listings still carry most of this wording, and the California Office of Historic Preservation maintains the program's current texts.

Many of these plaques have since been recast or their texts revised. The California Historical Landmarks program and its current texts are maintained by the California Office of Historic Preservation. California Office of Historic Preservation ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1863 · DeGroot's Map Of Nevada Territory. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1866 · Northern California. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1869 · Map Showing California Pacific Rail Road Extension (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1871 · Bancroft's New Map Of Central California. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1880 · Nevada County, California. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Nevada County, California, 1880, covering the location of First Transcontinental Railroad—Truckee, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Nevada County, California, 1880, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours and the location is approximate.

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For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyExpected here. This page shows the older published text, and some signs were recast later. Telling us still helps.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker data: State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, California Historical Landmarks (1971)

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