Transcript The First Transcontinental Railroad

Age of Industry and The First
Transcontinental Railroad
Why Build a Transcontinental Railroad?
Growth of West Coast
 West Coast gold and silver
 Shorter trip to move West
 Connect East with West for
business
 Solidify the Union
 Achieve Manifest Destiny

Getting Started…

Choosing a route
◦ Congress ordered surveys in 1853
◦ Debates between north and south about route
◦ No free-state politicians would approve funds
for a railroad that would spread slavery
◦ Northerners won when South seceded

Conquering the Sierra Nevada
◦ Giant, rocky, snowy obstacle for the engineers
◦ Found a route through Donner Pass in 1860
Getting Started…(cont’d)

Gaining government support
◦ Needed government cooperation, money, and
LAND
◦ Government was on board, but occupied by
Civil War

Who will pay?
◦ Big Four (Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins,
Crocker)
 Created and chaired Central Pacific Railroad
◦ Thomas Durant
◦ Ames Brothers
Bought most of the Union
Pacific stock
Who Made it Possible?

Key Players
◦ Theodore Judah
◦ Grenville Dodge
Railroad experts who conducted
land surveys, worked with the
government, and found
investors for railroad
Grenville Dodge
◦ Both understood the great benefits of a
transcontinental railroad
◦ Both devoted their lives to making sure the
plan was carried out
What Made it Possible?

Pacific Railway Act
◦ Passed July 1, 1862
◦ Created Union Pacific to build road from the
East and meet the Central Pacific
◦ Provided companies 5 alternating plots of land
on each side of the road for each mile along the
route
◦ Allowed $16,000 for each mile of flat land,
$32,000 for hills, and $48,000 for mountain
terrain
◦ Revised in 1864 to allow companies more land
and privileges
The Game Plan

Central Pacific Railroad
◦ Begin in Sacramento, CA
◦ Broke ground January 1863

Union Pacific Railroad
◦ Begin in Omaha, NE
◦ Broke ground in late 1863 but no
tracks laid until 1865
Route along the 42nd Parallel
 Meeting place: Promontory Summit,
UT

May 10, 1869

Meet a Promontory Point
Significance of the Railroad

Impact on Industry
 Railroads require great supply of materials
 Iron, coal, steel, glass industries grow to
meet demand
 Lower cost of production

Made the country smaller
 Railroads link isolated towns, promote trade,
interdependence
 Improved communication

Helped spur interest in Homestead Act
 New towns grow along railroad lines
Significance of Railroad

Creation of national markets
◦ Nationwide network of suppliers, markets develops
◦ Could sell finished products nationwide rather than just locally

Faster/More practical way to transport goods
◦ Biggest and best engineering project of its time
◦
Led to other transcontinental railroads and shorter branches
Beginning of the end for Native Americans…
* clashes with tribes on the Great Plains
* depletion of buffalo herds…