The Council Bluffs general and engineer who built the Union Pacific across the West.
Grenville Mellen Dodge made his home in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and became a railroad surveyor and Union major general in the Civil War. Council Bluffs was chosen as the eastern starting point of the transcontinental railroad.
As chief engineer of the Union Pacific, Dodge drove the line across the plains and mountains to meet the Central Pacific at Promontory, Utah, in 1869 — completing the first transcontinental railroad.
Dodge helped bind the country together by rail and shaped the growth of the American West. His grand Council Bluffs mansion, the General Dodge House, is a National Historic Landmark.
He remains one of Iowa's most nationally significant 19th-century figures.
The Council Bluffs general and engineer who built the Union Pacific across the West.
Grenville Dodge was from Council Bluffs, Iowa.
1831–1916.
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