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Order Establishing Gauge of Union Pacific Railroad1Jump to section
Whereas, by the 12th. Section of an act of Congress, entitled ``An Act to aid in the construction of a Rail Road and Telegraph line, from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean and to secure to the Government the use of the same, for postal, military, and other purposes,'' Approved July 1st. 1862, it is made the duty of the President of the United States, to determine the uniform width of the track of the entire line of the said Rail Road and the branches of the same; and whereas, application has been made to me, by the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Rail Road Company, (a company authorized by the Act of Congress above mentioned to construct a branch of said Rail Road) to fix the gauge thereof.
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, do determine that the uniform width of the track of said Rail Road and all its branches which are provided for in the aforesaid Act of Congress, shall be Five (5) feet, and that this order be filed in the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, for the information and guidance of all concerned.
Done at the City of Washington, this 21st. day of January, in the Year of Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty three.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] DS, DNA NR RG 48, General Records, Department of Interior, Union Pacific Railroad: On January 20, Lincoln asked the cabinet for their opinions on the relative merits of the five-foot gauge and the standard gauge of four feet eight and one-half inches. Welles' Diary on this date records that he as well as other members favored the standard gauge which was generally approved by Eastern interests, while California interests desired the five-foot width. Lincoln's order was superseded, however, by an act of congress approved on March 3, 1863, which established the standard gauge already widely adopted in the East as the width of the first transcontinental railroad.