Crossing Great Salt Lake on Southern Pacific (Train) - Framed Picture - 11" x 14"

The Southern Pacific was a name of multiple American Class I railroads that existed from 1865 to 1998 and all operated in the Western United States. The names that represented the Southern Pacific were Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and Southern Pacific Transportation Company.

The original Southern Pacific began in 1865 as a land holding company. The last incarnation of the Southern Pacific, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, was founded in 1969 and took over the Southern Pacific system. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company was taken over by the Union Pacific Corporation and merged with their Union Pacific Railroad.

The Southern Pacific Transportation Company was the surviving railroad as it absorbed the Union Pacific Railroad and changed its name to "Union Pacific Railroad", the Southern Pacific Transportation Company is now the current incarnation of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The Southern Pacific legacy founded important hospitals in San Francisco, Tucson, Arizona, and elsewhere. In the 1970s, it also founded a telecommunications network with a state-of-the-art microwave and fiber optic backbone.

This telecommunications network became part of Sprint, a company whose name came from the acronym for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.