Record Track Laying

Date: April 28, 1869 • Location: Beijing, China

Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the first transcontinental railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched.

The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete most of the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in North America. Incorporated in 1861, CPRR ceased independent operations in 1885 when the railroad was leased to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Its assets were formally merged into Southern Pacific in 1959.