Historical Marker · No. 780
First Transcontinental Railroad
Sacramento, Sacramento County · California
Erected by The California State Park Commission in cooperation with the Southern Pacific Company, the City and County of Sacramento, the Sacramento County Historical Society, the California Historical Society, the Society of California Pioneers, the Conference of California Historical Societies, and the Grand Parlors of the Native Sons and Native Daughters of the Golden West, January 1963
The landmark is indoors, behind an admission desk. The state bronze for the groundbreaking hangs in the rear lounge of the California State Railroad Museum, on a wall of plaques that all commemorate the same morning, and you pay to reach it. Out at Front and K, where Stanford turned the first spade on 8 January 1863, two successive interpretive panels have stood and been replaced. The commemoration of a public work is the part of it that is not public.
Where it stands
38.58444, -121.50394 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Sacramento — 0.2 miThe Gold Rush river port that became the state capital, and jacked itself ten feet into the air to stop drowning.
More markers nearby
- Old Sacramento — steps away
- B. F. Hastings Building — steps away
- Site of Sacramento Union — steps away
- Eagle Theater — steps away