In a joint press release from the two railroading giants, the new proposed mega company is referred to as the "The Union Pacific Transcontinental Railroad."

When Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announced their merger deal Tuesday to form “America’s first transcontinental railroad,” it puzzled some who recalled the golden spike driven in 1869 at Utah’s Promontory Summit. That last spike only connected two railroads from Omaha, Neb., to Sacramento, Calif.