Historical Marker
First Transcontinental Railroad-Western Base of the Sierra Nevada
Sacramento, Sacramento County · California
Erected by The State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the New Helvetia Chapter, No. 5, E Clampus Vitus, August 7, 1971
The mountains were moved for money. Federal subsidy ran at sixteen thousand dollars a mile across flat country and forty-eight thousand through mountains, so the Central Pacific needed the Sierra to begin as near Sacramento as it could arrange. It settled on Arcade Creek, seven miles out and flat as a floor. The state geologist allowed that the true base was the Sacramento River but that the creek would serve for the purposes of the bill. Lincoln signed in 1864.
What the plaque says
First Transcontinental Railroad Western Base of the Sierra Nevada On January 12, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln decreed that where the Central Pacific Railroad crossed Arcade Creek the western base of the Sierra Nevada began. The hardships of railroad construction through mountains resulted in increased government subsidies. These funds gave the company impetus to finish the transcontinental railroad. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 780-8 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the New Helvetia Chapter, No. 5, E Clampus Vitus, August 7, 1971
Where it stands
38.63414, -121.40282 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Sacramento — 6.6 miThe Gold Rush river port that became the state capital, and jacked itself ten feet into the air to stop drowning.