OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific is seeking to buy Norfolk Southern in a $85 billion deal that would create the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S, and potentially trigger a final wave of rail mergers across the country.

The proposed merger, announced Tuesday, would marry Union Pacific’s rail network in the West with Norfolk’s rails that snake across Eastern states.

The nation was first linked by rail in 1869, when a golden railroad spike was driven in Utah to symbolize the connection of East and West Coasts. Yet no single entity has controlled that coast-to-coast passage that so many businesses rely on.

The railroads said the tie-up would streamline deliveries of raw materials and goods across the country. The AP first reported the merger talks earlier this month a week before the r

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