The Transcontinental Railroad was the railroad that connected the East Coast to West Coast. The tracks were 1,776 miles long, laid west of the Mississippi River. America was connected coast to coast for the first time. Construction started on May 10, 1860, and ended six years late at Promontory Summit, Utah. Before the construction even started the planning of the railroad began way early. Surveying the ground began in the early 1850’s. The first train in America started running the early 1830’s. And by the end of 1840’s the entire east coast was laid with the track. Roughly ten thousand miles of track linked cities on the east coast. In the mid 19th century the wild west was as exotic a frontier as outer space today. In the 1850’s following …show more content…
Not any surveys stood up, except survey done by Theodore Judah. Judah, a civil engineer who helped build the first railroad in California suggested a route along the 41st parallel, running through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. The obstacle that he faces in his proposed route was the Sierra Nevada mountains. A rail line built along this route would require tunneling through granite mountains. The project came to a halt until a solution was founded. In 1859, Judah received a letter from Denial Strong. The route shown by Strong had had a gradual rise and required the line to cross the summit of only one mountain rather than two. Judah agreeing to Strongs route, they both created the Central Pacific Railroad Company. Judah started to seek for investors and convinced Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker; and Leland Stanford. These investors were later known as “The Big …show more content…
Judah contracted yellow fever during the trip. Judah died five days after reaching New York. Judah died before seeing a single spike driven into a rail. The big four now controlled Judah’s vision. Charlie Crocker filled the role as the railroad construction chief. Crocker knew his job won’t be easy. Most men were fighting at war or working in the silver mines. Not only he faced the shortage of labors. He also faced the shortage of material even before starting to lay the first spike. Wooden ties were made in local sawmills, but everything else had to be imported from the east coast. Every locomotive, spike, and gunpowder had to be shipped from east coast to west coast and then had to farrier to Sacramento, which would take eight to nine
Ambrose, Stephen. Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Print.
Farmers began to cultivate vast areas of needed crops such as wheat, cotton, and even corn. Document D shows a picture of The Wheat Harvest in 1880, with men on earlier tractors and over 20-30 horses pulling the tractor along the long and wide fields of wheat. As farmers started to accumilate their goods, they needed to be able to transfer the goods across states, maybe from Illinios to Kansas, or Cheyenne to Ohmaha. Some farmers chose to use cattle trails to transport their goods. Document B demonstrates a good mapping of the major railroads in 1870 and 1890. Although cattle trails weren't used in 1890, this document shows the existent of several cattle trails leading into Chyenne, San Antonio, Kansas City and other towns nearby the named ones in 1870. So, farmers began to transport their goods by railroads, which were publically used in Germany by 1550 and migrated to the United States with the help of Colonel John Stevens in 1826. In 1890, railroads expanded not only from California, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada, but up along to Washington, Montana, Michigan, down to New Mexico and Arizona as well. Eastern States such as New Jersey, Tennesse, Virginia and many others were filled with existing railroads prior to 1870, as Colonel John Stevens started out his railroad revolutionzing movement in New Jersey in 1815.
Cannons boomed simultaneously in New York and San Francisco at the same moment the golden spike was hammered into the ground, connecting the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad companies at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869 (American 1). North America became the first continent to be connected by railroad from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast when the Transcontinental Railroad was finished (Gale 1). The railroad was an essential component of achieving manifest destiny. The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad spurred settlement in the American West, encouraged immigration, and began an economic boom in the United States.
In Henry George’s article, What the Railroad Will Bring Us, it discusses the main social, political, and economic transformations that the trans-continental railroad would bring to the state of California. More importantly, he discusses not only the benefits, but also discusses the major drawbacks with the arrival of the railroad. Henry George stated the railroad would be the “greatest work of the age” (297). With a railroad stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, multiple benefits would be brought to the state of California. First, the railroad will not only create a new means of transportation across the United States, it additionally would also become “one of the greatest material prosperity” of its time (298). This means more people, more houses,
This had farmers in distress, for they were losing more money than they were making. Farmers’ incomes were low, and in order to make a profit on what they produced, they began to expand the regions in which they sold their products. This was facilitated through the railroads, by which through a series of grants from the government as contracted in the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, were made possible; which latter lead to the boom of rail roads in 1868-1873.... ... middle of paper ...
With the mining came the railroads. In December of 1878 the first train came to New Mexico, the Atchison, Topeka, and S...
The transcontinental railroad was a 1,800 mile railroad linking Omaha, Missouri with Sacramento, California. This railroad was built through varying environmental conditions including grassy plains, desserts, and mountains such as the Sierra. The railroad revolutionized transportation in the nineteenth century (Galloway 4). The First Transcontinental Railroad was built in the 1860s in order to connect the Eastern and Western coasts of the United States. In the book The Railroads, statistical data describes that “In 1830, 23 miles of railroad track were being operated in the United States; by 1890 that figure had grown to 166,703 miles, as cities and villages were linked across the lan...
As shown in the photo above, on April 28th, 1869, the final ten miles of track were laid in an astonishing twelve hours. On May 10th, 1869, The Central Pacific Railroad met and connected with the Union Pacific Railroad in Promontory, Utah to complete the first transcontinental railroad after building 1,800 miles of new track.
The California Gold Rush in 1849 was the catalyst event for the state that earned them a spot in the U.S. union in 1850. This was not the first gold rush in North America; however, it was one of the most important gold rush events. The story of how the gold was discovered and the stories of the 49ers are well known. Men leaving their families in the East and heading West in hopes of striking it rich are the stories that most of us heard about when we learn about the California Gold Rush. Professors and scholars over the last two decades from various fields of study have taken a deeper look into the Gold Rush phenomena. When California joined the Union in 1850 it helped the U.S. expand westward just as most Americans had intended to do. The event of the Gold Rush can be viewed as important because it led to a national railroad. It also provided the correct circumstances for successful entrepreneurship, capitalism, and the development modern industrialization. The event also had a major influence on agriculture, economics, and politics.
It originally took about 6 months to get from the west of the US to the east, but now it only took 7 days. With railroads expanding all across the country, agriculture was affected in a mostly positive
Many other farming machines were also developed during this time period, they all made farming in the west much more popular, easier, and profitable. The Trans-continental railroad was started in 1862, even though other trains were already running in different parts of the U.S. The telegraph also went up along with the railroads, although the first time it was used was in 1844. All four of these major technological advancements have helped the United States really get going on their Manifest Destiny. The economy would also blossom during this expansion.
With the amazing delivery of mail in 10 days across 2,000-miles of prairie land, mountains and deserts led many people to use them. With the growth communication between the east and the west the Pony Express grew in popularity. The Pony Express proved that the central route through the U.S could be traveled all winter. It supported the cattle route for the Transcontinental Railroad to meet with the Union Pacific Railroad. Communications was kept open with California during the Civil War. The Pony Express was the fastest communication between the east and west until the telegraph. It captured the hearts and imagination of people all over the world.
After America acquired the West, the need for efficient transportation heightened. Ideas circulated about a railroad that would spread across the continent from East to West. Republican congresses ruled for the federal funding of railroad construction, however, all actions were halted for a few years on account of a war. Following the American Civil War of 1861-1865, the race to build transcontinental railroad began in 1866. Lincoln approved Pacific Railway Act of 1862, granting two railroad companies the right to build the first American transcontinental railroad, (Clark 432).
New technology regarding transportation changed the economy in terms of reduced land cost, more exports, and cheaper modes of travel. One of the worst ways to travel before 1790 was by wagon: the crude roads were bumpy, it was slow, and altogether transportation was unpleasant for the travellers. This was unappealing to many settlers, which explains why there was minimum westward movement from the Appalachian Mountains. This was felt in the bones of a private company who then built the Philadelphia-Lancaster Turnpike, named so for the spikes that would turn after a traveller paid his or her toll. Although paved roads were expensive, state governments and some individuals paid for them. The new roads enticed settlers to go
Calhoun pushed for a bill that would use money from the united states treasury to build a system of roads and canals across the nation. But it was vetoed by James Madison he stated, “I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States… The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution, and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by the bill is among the enumerated powers.”. St.Joseph, Missouri was chosen as the eastern terminus because it was connected to the eastern railroads and telegraph. The Western telegraph would be located in Sacramento, California. Benjamin Ficklin was hired as superintendent of the route. Ficklin set up the route into five divisions and hired superintendents to run each division. Over 400 hand picked horses were purchased and stations were built that at every station riders would exchange their horse for a fresh one. Some stations were equipped with beds to house riders. Each station was built 15-20 miles apart, riders rode about 75 miles every