[3] The Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was organized for this purpose in August 1864, and soon came under common ownership with the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, a land-grant company, leased by the Chicago and North Western Railway, that completed its road across Iowa to Council Bluffs in April 1867.
The line from California Junction west to Fremont, Nebraska was completed in early 1869, initially crossing the Missouri River via a car ferry.
(During the previous month, the Sioux City and Pacific had bought the incomplete roadbed of the Moville Extension Railway, which the C&NW completed that year, branching off the main line at Sergeant Bluff and connecting to an existing C&NW line at Moville.
)[4][5] The line became more important in the 1960s, when the point where the UP and C&NW interchanged transcontinental traffic was moved from Council Bluffs to Fremont, allowing for a shorter route via Blair.
After the UP acquired control of the C&NW in 1995, it implemented directional running in late 1996, taking eastbound trains (including Powder River Basin coal) over the longer but flatter Omaha Subdivision through Council Bluffs.