[1] Along with BNSF Railway, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the companies have a near-duopoly on freight railroad transportation west of the Mississippi River.

The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, and it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri River to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union.

[3] Union Pacific was entangled in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, a fraud involving the company, which hurriedly constructed the railroad, and Crédit Mobilier of America, which was formed to finance the construction, from 1864 to 1867 and exposed in 1872.

[3] The Union Pacific Railway declared bankruptcy during the Panic of 1893, in part due to losses from the fraud and new competition, and went into government receivership.

[3] In 1898, under a bankruptcy plan sponsored by Kuhn, Loeb & Co., it emerged from the receivership under a new similarly named entity controlled by E. H.

[11] At the time, it was the fifth largest trucking company in the United States and represented the expansion of Union Pacific east of the Mississippi River.

[14] In 2003, Union Pacific completed a corporate spin-off and initial public offering of Overnite.

[26] In 2000, due to a slowdown in business activity during the early 2000s recession, the company cut 2,000 jobs.

[29] Union Pacific was headquartered in New York City at the time of the company's re-founding in 1969.