__NOTOC__ The Comanche Crossing of the

Kansas Pacific Railroad The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontine ...

is a site where the last spike was driven into the first continuous transcontinental railroad on August 15, 1870. With The site is east of

Strasburg, Colorado Strasburg is an unincorporated town, just 30 minutes east of downtown Denver along the I-70 corridor. It is home to Strasburg School District 31-J with an enrollment of 1209 students. There are several small businesses, medical clinics, a post offi ...

, near railroad mile marker 602. A monument commemorating the event is located at Lyons Park in Strasburg.

History

On May 10, 1869,

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

and

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by Pacific Railroad Acts, U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in N ...

was connected at

Promontory, Utah Promontory is an area of high ground in Box Elder County, Utah, United States, 32 mi (51 km) west of Brigham City and 66 mi (106 km) northwest of Salt Lake City. Rising to an elevation of 4,902 feet (1,494 m) above sea ...

, providing railroad transportation between

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

and

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. There was not true, unbroken transcontinental railroad service to ports on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts until the September 6, 1869 connection to

Alameda terminal Alameda Terminal (a.k.a. Alameda Wharf) was a railroad station and ferry wharf at the foot and west of present-day Pacific Avenue and Main Street in Alameda, California, on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay with ferry service to San Franci ...

on the shores of

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

and this August 15, 1870, "joining of the rails" of the

near the crossing at Comanche Crossing in Colorado. The Union Pacific-Central Pacific line from the West coast was thus linked to the east side of the Missouri River at Kansas City, which was then connected by rail network to the East coast. It remained the only all-rail route across the country until March 22, 1872, when the Union Pacific finished the railroad bridge across the Missouri River at Omaha. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1970 and it is part of a multiple property submission, Railroads in Colorado, 1858-1948 for the National Register of Historic Places.

References

External links

National Register of Historical Places
History of Aurora, Colorado Buildings and structures in Arapahoe County, Colorado Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Arapahoe County, Colorado {{Colorado-stub

History

See also

References

External links