ipl-logo

Effects Of Westward Expansion From 1860 To 1890

819 Words4 Pages

Introduction This “think piece” will be covering the Westward Expansion from 1860 to 1890. During that time a lot of changes occurred to the American land. One of the major impacts, that was noticed, was the increase in railroads and cities. Without these railroads, traveling time to the west could to up to 6 months and the small cities were growing because of the railroads that were being created and were being called “Railroad Towns”. Transcontinental Railroad Before the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad, travel to the west could take up to 6 month and that meant going through rivers, over mountains and possibly getting lost and dying of starvation. In the 1830s the first trains began to run along the East Cost and the idea of …show more content…

Judah began seeking investors and was able to convince Sacramento businessman, that a railroad would bring much needed trade to the area. These Business men paid Judah to survey the route; he used maps from his survey to present the idea to congress in 1861.Many members of congress were leery with this expensive decision. But, President Abraham Lincoln agreed with Judah and on July 1st 1862 The Pacific Railway Act was signed authorizing land grants and government bonds, which amounted to $32,000 per mile of …show more content…

(2004). The railroads were assured land on which to lay the tracks and sell the land, the proceeds of which helped companies finance the construction of their railroads. Smaller railroads had to purchase the land first in order to lay there track because they were not government funded. The contract of this project lay to two companies, Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad. Now with money on the line the two companies began competing for the $32,000 subsidy from the government. No end point was set for the two rail lines when President Lincoln signed the act, so a decision was going to be made. The two companies were closing in one another in Utah, with Central Pacific starting from New York City and Union Pacific from Omaha, Nebraska. With numerous Civil War veterans now out of work, hiring for the Union Pacific Railroad was very easy. The Central Pacific Railroad had almost 80 percent Chinese workers within three years and some believed to be working harder and faster than the works in the Union Pacific railroad. Mostly due to the fact, that the works of the Central Pacific slept in the tunnels to save precious time traveling in and out every

Show More
Related
676 Words | 3 Pages

3. Despite the initial sentiment of economic historians, the railroad was not an integral part of American economic development after 1860. Even though the railroads were not crucial to economic growth does not negate the fact that the railroads were the first big business in the United States. The railroads benefited from economies of scale, increases in technology and pro-railroad legislation. The miles of track line increased exponentially from 30,000 miles of main line track in 1860 to 254,037 miles by 1916.

Read More
575 Words | 3 Pages

The major decline in railroad transportation during the 1950’s was primarily due to the vast construction of interstate highway by the government. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the vast construction of 41,000 miles of roadway with a steep price of 25 billion dollars that would come from taxpayer money. With the increase in air and road travel, the need to travel by rail, in a less direct route, seemed unnecessary. This would ultimately leave railroad companies to believe traveling by rail was in a permanent decline. On February 18, 1947, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) formally announced that they were operating at a loss.

Read More
1852 Words | 8 Pages

The Oregon Trail Nebraska was the first state to join the Union after the Civil War. This state is mostly known for its cattle, corn, and unicameral legislature. However, Nebraska is also known for its historic trails, which in the early years were carved out by pioneers, explorers and gold seekers into the western frontier. The history of Nebraska during the 1800s is unique because of the Oregon Trail; Nebraska played an important role in the Oregon Trail. Some people thought it was preposterous to travel the Oregon Trail to move into an unknown country.

Read More
1200 Words | 5 Pages

The railroad companies sold off the land and with the money made, financed their railroad construction. It was built in the late 1800's and was completed over the course of many years. The population of Washington grew quickly

Read More
359 Words | 2 Pages

Discuss the reasons why Americans were drawn to expansion in the late nineteenth century? America’s was drawn into continual westward expansion in the late nineteenth century because it wanted to expand trade amongst other reasons. There was that small-group of Americans who warned that the country must not let itself be shut out of the scramble for empire. American was beginning to a overflowing population of America, which according to, a census, which stated by census that there was no longer a clear line separating settled the land from unsettled land.

Read More
367 Words | 2 Pages

In the late 1800’s the United States was a young nation. That wanted to expand it’s boarder ’s so they headed west. This began the great “Westward Expansion”.

Read More
1176 Words | 5 Pages

(Billington,2001) There were four main trails to travel west to settlements which included the Sant Fe Trail, The Overland Trail, the Mormon Trail, Oregon Trail. These were the only way to the western territories until the transcontinental railroad. In 1862, the U.S. government issued bonds and land grants to the Union Pacific and the Cental Pacific Railroad in the first railroad acts. On July 10, 1865, the first track of the Union

Read More
1224 Words | 5 Pages

With the help of the government, two train companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific,, capitalized on the rush for westward movement. Together, they created the transcontinental railroad, which connected the East coast with the West which made a month long trip only take a week, therefore making it easier for people to move west. To get people to move, many companies put up advertisements saying that there were many acres for sale at cheap prices. This is shown in Document 7 in which the Burlington & Missouri River R.R. Co. advertises Millions of Acres for sale in Iowa and Nebraska going for 6 per ct. interest and low prices.

Read More
383 Words | 2 Pages

Each railroad company got one side of the country. The Union Pacific got the East side of the country, starting at Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific got the West side of the country, starting at Sacramento, California. Both companies joined tracks on May 10, 1869 in Promontory Point, Utah. During the time of the building, The Civil War

Read More
1032 Words | 5 Pages

In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act (lindahall.org). This act gave the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific the land for building the railroad (ducksters.com). The government was paying these two companies by milage and that caused some problems to occur. They were paid $6,000 per mile on flat land, $32,000 for building on the high plains, and $48,000 per mile through mountains (tcrr.com).

Read More
179 Words | 1 Pages

In 1862, an act was passed down called the Pacific railroad act. This act chartered the Central Pacific and the Pacific railroad companies. In addition, the Pacific railroad act tasked them to build a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from coast to coast or east to west. It needed about 5,000 men to do this and since the chinese did the great wall of china why not make the Chinese to came to America and to build the railroad and ⅔ did. Over the next 7 years both companies would race toward each other, starting at Sacramento, California on one side and Omaha, Nebraska on the other.

Read More
889 Words | 4 Pages

In between California and the rest of the country were the Great Plains which were not heavily populated so there was no easy way of trade and transportation to the growing western territories. A group of men called the “Big Four” which consisted of Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, decided what the country needed was a transcontinental railroad. Their company, The Central Pacific Railroad company would hire 15,000 Chinese men to work on constructing the railroad due to the fact that they would work for less than the average American. This made transportation cheaper and quicker than ever

Read More
558 Words | 3 Pages

Before the 1800s, there were two early roads, Forbes and Wilderness Road. In 1811, the National Road known as Cumberland Road was built to reach Western settlements, because they needed a road to ship farm products that connect East and West. The National Road passed thousand of wagons and coaches. John F. Stover states in American Railroads, “The rich agricultural production of the country, the small but expanding factories of eastern cities, and the largely untapped natural resources of the nation-all of these called for improvements in transport. ”(Stover1)

Read More
821 Words | 4 Pages

The Tremendous Impact of Railroads on America In the late 19th century, railroads propelled America into an era of unprecedented growth, prosperity, and convenient transportation. Prior to the building of the railroads, America lacked the proper and rapid transportation to make traveling across the country economical or practical. Lengthy travel was often cumbersome, costly, and dangerous.

Read More
1994 Words | 8 Pages

An engineer by the name of Theodore Judah began looking for investors to help him begin building the railroad that would stretch all the way to the Pacific Ocean. After finding investors from Sacramento, California, he created the Central Pacific Railroad Company. After forming the company, Judah went to Washington in search of Congressional approval for the daunting task of building what is now known as the Transcontinental Railroad. He gets approval from not only Congress but also from President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act, meaning the government would assist the Central Pacific Railroad Company on its building journey.

Read More

More about Effects Of Westward Expansion From 1860 To 1890

Open Document