Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are confirming they're in merger talks that would create North America’s largest railroad, stretching service from East to West Coasts.

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announced a merger that will create the first transcontinental railroad with an enterprise value of more than $250 billion.

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.