Which event happened prior to President Lincoln signing the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862?

Asa Whitney proposed and petitioned for a transcontinental railroad years before Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862. The Civil War ended in 1865, and the Golden Spike ceremony marking the railroad’s completion took place in 1869. Work on the Sierra Nevada tunnels was also part of construction after the act, so the earlier event was Whitney’s request to build the railroad.

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