<Tr> <Th> Track gauge </Th> <Td> 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄ in) → 1 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Headquarters </Th> <Td> Sacramento, CA; San Francisco, CA </Td> </Tr> <P> The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail route between California and Utah built eastwards from the West Coast in the 1860s, to complete the western part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America . It later became part of the Union Pacific Railroad . </P> <P> Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental railroad failed because of the energy consumed by political disputes over slavery . With the secession of the South, the modernizers in the Republican Party controlled the US Congress . They passed legislation authorizing the railroad, with financing in the form of government railroad bonds . These were all eventually repaid with interest . The government and the railroads both shared in the increased value of the land grants, which the railroads developed . The construction of the railroad also secured for the government the economical "safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores ." </P>

Who made a fortune from the central pacific railroad