Transcript The Transcontinental Railroad PowerPoint

The Transcontinental
Railroad
Railroads had already transformed life in the
East, but at the end of the Civil War they still
stopped at the Missouri River. For a quarter of a
century, men had dreamed of building a line
from coast to coast.
The Transcontinental
Railroad
The
Transcontinental
Railroad stretches
1,775 miles from
Omaha, Nebraska
to Sacramento,
California and
took more than
20,000 workers
over 6 years to
build.
The Transcontinental
Railroad
It would have to be cut through mountains higher
than any railroad-builder had ever faced, span
raging rivers, traverse deserts where there was
no water to be found, and cross treeless prairies
where anxious and defiant Indians would resist
their passage.
The Political Decision
In 1862, Congress gave charters to two
companies to build it. The Union Pacific
was to start from Omaha, Nebraska, cross
the great plains and cut through the Rocky
Mountains. The Central Pacific was to push
eastward from Sacramento, CA. over the
Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Thomas C. Durant
The Union Pacific was
run by Thomas C.
Durant
Durant was a scoundrel
and tyrant motivated by
making “easy money”.
After three years, and a
cost of more than
$500,000, the Union
Pacific had laid only 40
miles of track.
The Union Pacific
To salvage the Union Pacific, Durant brought in
Grenville Dodge, a civil engineer who, during the
Civil War, had built railroads so fast they used to
say of him, "We don't know where he is, but we
can see where he has been."
Theodore Judah
Judah created the
Central Pacific Railroad
Co. and served as the
railroad's agent in
Washington, D.C.
He became known as
"Crazy Judah" because
of his passion for driving
a railroad through the
Sierra Nevada
Mountains.
The Central Pacific
After discovering a route for the railroad
through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Theodore
Judah located four Sacramento investors who
each purchased $15,000 of stock in the newly
born Central Pacific Railroad. These men
became known as the “Big Four”.
“The Big Four”
.
The “Big Four” were Leland Stanford, Collis
P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles
Crocker. The Central Pacific Railroad made
these four investors some of the wealthiest
men in America.
Stanford
Huntington
Hopkins
Crocker
Leland Stanford
Leland Stanford had made a fortune selling
supplies to California gold miners. In 1861, he
became governor of California and later became
president of the Central Pacific Railroad.
Huntington and Hopkins
Collis P. Huntington also moved to California
during the gold rush. The Sacramento hardware
store he and Mark Hopkins owned made money
selling goods to miners at inflated prices.
Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker went to California in search of
gold. But, like the other “Big Four”, he too
struck it rich after opening a store in
Sacramento.
“The Big Four”
Who were “The Big Four”?
S________
H__________ H_______
C________
Those Who Built It
The real heroes of the
railroad, however, were
the 20,000 men who
labored to build it with
their bare hands.
Conditions were harsh
for workers; freezing
winters, searing summer
heat, Indian attacks, and
most dangerous of all,
the lawless and violent
end-of-the-track towns
called "hell-on-wheels”.
The Irish Laborers
Many were Civil War veterans.
Average pay... a dollar a day.
Worked as pick and shovel
men, teamsters, blacksmiths,
mechanics, carpenters,
masons, and track-layers.
Crews lived in railroad cars,
including dormitories and an
arsenal car containing loaded
rifles for protection in the
event of an Indian attack. .
Crews worked up to16 hour
days, seven days a week,
including most weekends,
laying more than a mile of
track per day.
The Chinese Laborers
In 1865, Crocker, in charge of construction,
found a solution to their work force problem.
Besides hiring Irish immigrants who worked for
low pay, the Central Pacific Railroad began
employing over 10,000 Chinese immigrants.
The Money Motivator
In 1862, Congress loaned the Central Pacific
and Union Pacific Railroads $16,000 per mile of
level track and $48,000 per mile of mountain
track. Congress also promised each company
6,400 acres of federal land for every mile of
track it laid.
The Race Is On!!
The Union Pacific and Central Pacific were soon
locked in a race to see who could lay the most
track -- and therefore get the most land and
money. Somewhere in the West -- no one knew
exactly where -- the two lines were supposed to
meet.
The Railroad Record
In 1866, the CPR had 44 blizzards while trying
to tunnel through the Sierras. In 1869, the
CPR laid 360 miles of track. On April 28, 1869,
the CPR crew set a record of laying 10 miles in
twelve hours.
The Final Spike
Finally, on May 10, 1869, The UPR and CPR met
at Promontory Summit, Utah. The presidents
of both railroads, Durant and Stanford, swung
at the last gold spike.
"May God continue the unity of our Country as the Railroad unites the two great Oceans of the world."
Promontory Point
How The Railroads
Changed Time
Before the railroads, each town kept its own
time, based on the position of the sun.
Railroad companies, however, needed more
exact time tables. They devised a system with
four time zones – eastern, central, mountain,
and pacific time. Every place within the same
time zone observed the same time.
Pullman Cars
George Pullman approached Durant in 1867 with the idea of sleeper
cars.
Pullman cars of the 1860s and '70s eased travel and offered some
luxury, notwithstanding the perils of early train travel.
The lavish passenger trains touched off an industrial and architectural
design movement by using streamlined chrome, plastic, synthetic fiber
and coordinated color schemes.
Pullman passengers and staff (who were mostly black) enjoyed a world
of fine wood, excellent upholstery, and food you could only find at the
finest restaurants back home.
The Pullman Sleeper and
Dining Cars
Railroad lines also added sleeper and dining cars where
porters, conductors and waiters attended
to the needs of passengers.
Technology of the
Railroads
In 1869, George Westinghouse helped make
railway travel safer and faster with the
invention of a new air brake. On early trains,
each railroad car had its own brakes and brake
operator. If different cars stopped at different
times, accidents resulted. The new air brake
allowed an engineer to stop all the cars at once.
How the Railroads
Changed America
The railroads spurred economic growth. Steelworkers turned millions of tons of iron into steel
for track. Lumberjacks supplied wood for
railroad ties. Miners dug coal to fuel the
engines. The railroads opened every corner of
the country to settlement and growth.
Central Pacific locomotive No. 1