Question: when was congress able to pass legislation that authorized a transcontinental railroad
Answer: Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 1 , 1862 , the 1862 Act authorized extensive land grants in the Western United States and the issuance of 30 - year government bonds ( at 6 percent ) to the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad ( later the Southern Pacific Railroad ) companies in order to construct a continuous transcontinental railroad between the eastern side of the Missouri River at Council Bluffs , Iowa ( opposite from Omaha , Nebraska ) and the navigable waters of the Sacramento River in Sacramento , California .