The American 16th president Abraham Lincoln approved the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, giving building contracts to only two railroad companies. The railroad later becomes a symbol of unity between the broken American nation. The construction of the railroad helped build the foundation of the transportation
6. Identify the place where the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads met. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific met at Promontory Summit to finish the final part of the track. The Union Pacific started in Omaha, Nebraska and Central Pacific started in Sacramento,
This started in Sacramento and continued to build east. Congress, however, had one plan in mind; to build the railways as fast as possible. First, with each mile of track that was completed, they gave twenty alternate sections of land, to build the next mile. Second, congress would give loans: $16,000 was given to produce each mile of track on flat prairie land, $32,000 per mile if the track was produced on hilly terrain, and $48,000 per mile in the
The first railways were created in England and involved horse drawn carriages that moves along rails imbedded in the street. The English Richard Trevithick built the first full scale steam powered locomotive in 1802, it then proceeded to spread quickly throughout England becoming the quickest mode of long distance transportation. It wasn’t until 1830 that the US first started to develop steam powered locomotive of their own, before that the US had to import locomotives from Great Britain. Subsequent to seeing the immense potential of a railroad industry in America, locomotives and tracks began to be constructed seemingly overnight.
The railroad was first designed by George Stephenson whose original idea was to use steam to run the train and make transportation faster. When the US started using railroads and trains they purchased them from the Stephen Works company from Britain. “In the 1850s a boom in railroad development across the North was changing business organization and management and reducing freight costs. Railroads were influencing a rise in real estate values, increasing regional concentrations of industry, the size of business units and stimulating growth in investment banking and agriculture.
The West’s Influence on the Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway was first foremost a business, and like all businesses the main goal is economic success. In its rival and creation, the marvel of the steel rail was a lucrative plan by the East where politicians and investors got together to establish the first ever Canadian Railway. At the same time, America was a giant, and its commercial influence only grew with its transcontinental railroad that already started to get closer in control of the Western and Eastern provinces of Canada allowing Britain to slowly lose power unless it created a change. This idea of building a unified purpose was the reason that the Canadian Pacific Railway was created and lied solely on the
Thesis The Colorado Silver Mining Boom (1879-1893) inspired a race for the right to lay railroad tracks through the Colorado Royal Gorge. Conflict between the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway turned into a violent war that created turmoil for the railroad industry and for the courts. On March 27, 1880 a compromise was forged when the Treaty of Boston ended the conflict that had helped shape the American transportation system. The Steam Engine
The two railways were not projected to meet at the planned location in Utah any longer. Congress acted and ordered the lines to meet at Promontory Point, near Ogden, Utah. The final railroad tie was made of laurel and was wrapped in silver. It was laid on May 1, 1869, completing the long track of railway connecting West to East (Stockwell, 2011). The transcontinental railroad was key to the industrial economy of the United States.
The railroad was vital in the setting of the west for the American people. The Pacific Railway Act gave the American people a much easier way of travel to the east. This made it more likely for large families to participate in the expansion due to the lack of hardship that many encountered during the Oregon Trail. The Act gave the Union Pacific Railroad the expansion from Nebraska west, while the Central Pacific Railroad moved from California east. Thus, the first railroad was completed when the two companies finally connected in Promontory Point, Utah in spring 1869.
1. Pacific Railway act is a law passed in 1862 and 1864 giving large lands grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads. 2. Exoduster is an African American who migrated to the west after the civil war 3. Reservation is a federal land set aside for Native Americans.
Because of the rapid settlement of the western land in the 1850s, Congress wanted to enforce a transcontinental railroad to replace America’s current weak transportation system—horse-drawn carriages were still used and soldiers often had to walk. But due to the constant competition between the Northern members and the Southern
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
Therefore, railroad has been brought in America. “The first trains began to run in America in the 1830s along the East Coast. By the 1840s, the nation's railway networks extended throughout the East, South, and Midwest, and the idea of building a railroad across the nation to the Pacific gained momentum. ”(Brief History) The transcontinental impacted the lifestyle of people.
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
They could start a shop and get money rather than being oppressed by their home country. California quickly rose in population and consequently job opportunities opened up and the economy of California and the United States grew. It became evident that there should be a quicker way to travel from Boston to San Francisco and vice versa, so the building of the transcontinental railroad was
