The transcontinental line became popularly known as the Overland Route after the name of the principal passenger rail service to Chicago that operated over the length of the line until 1962. The CPRR eventually purchased 53 miles (85 km) of UPRR-built grade from Promontory Summit (MP 828) to Ogden, Utah Territory (MP 881), which became the interchange point between trains of the two roads. Service between San Francisco and Oakland Pier continued to be provided by ferry. The road's rail terminus was moved two months later to the Oakland Long Wharf, about a mile to the north, when its expansion was completed and opened for passengers on November 8, 1869. The first transcontinental rail passengers arrived at the Pacific Railroad's original western terminus at the Alameda Terminal on September 6, 1869, where they transferred to the steamer Alameda for transport across the Bay to San Francisco. It brought the western states and territories into alignment with the northern Union states and made transporting passengers and goods coast-to-coast considerably quicker, safer and less expensive. The resulting coast-to-coast railroad connection revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West. In the following six months, the last leg from Sacramento to San Francisco Bay was completed. The railroad opened for through traffic between Sacramento and Omaha on May 10, 1869, when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially tapped the gold 'Last Spike' (later often referred to as the ' Golden Spike') with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit. The Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) built 1,085 miles (1,746 km) from the road's eastern terminus at the Missouri River settlements of Council Bluffs and Omaha, Nebraska westward to Promontory Summit. The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) constructed 690 miles (1,110 km) east from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory.

The Western Pacific Railroad Company built 132 miles (212 km) of track from the road's western terminus at Alameda/ Oakland to Sacramento, California. Building was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds. The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the ' Pacific Railroad' and later as the ' Overland Route') was a 1,911-mile (3,075 km) continuous railroad line constructed between 18 that connected the existing eastern U.S. 1863–1869: Union Pacific built west (blue line), Central Pacific built east (red line) and Western Pacific built the last leg (green line) to complete the railroad

Transcontinental railroad story of us