Transcript The Railroads The first transcontinental railroad

The Railroads
The first transcontinental railroad
The American West
The Iron Horse
• Tom Thumb
– 1830
– Peter Cooper
• Raced a horse drawn
carriage
– Due to damage the
train lost
– But, people realized
what a train could do
• This set off the great
rail chase
Dangers of the Railroad
• Early Travel
– Dirty, Uncomfortable,
and dangerous
– No protection from the
weather
– No Protection from
engine sparks
– Rail Cars would tip as
they turned corners
The Building of the Railroads
• Built in 1860s
• Two companies
– Central Pacific Railroad Company
– Union Pacific Railroad Company
• Met and joined railroad in Promontory, Utah
• Date of completion 10 May 1869
• By 1893 there were 6 major railroad
companies
The Transcontinental Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad
• Began in California
– Workers were hard to find
– All wanted to work in the
gold mines
– Wanted to build quickly so
they could earn more
money
• Chinese Immigrants
worked for the Central
Pacific
– They blasted through the
Sierra Nevada Mountains
The Union Pacific Railroad
• Began in Missouri
– Charged $50,000 per mile – only
cost $30,000 per mile to build
– Workers poured in to work after
the Civil War ended
– Many Irish, German, and
Swedish Immigrants worked for
the Union Pacific
• Harder to build than the
Central Pacific
–
–
–
–
More distance
Less wood
Less water
More Indian Attacks
• Laid about 2 miles of track per
day for $4 per worker
Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
Transcontinental Railroad
Transcontinental Railroad
Transcontinental Railroad
Promontory Point, Utah
Transcontinental Railroad
•
•
When they came to drive the last spike,
Governor Stanford, president of the Central
Pacific, took the sledge, and the first time he
struck he missed the spike and hit the rail.
What a howl went up! Irish, Chinese,
Mexicans, and everybody yelled with delight.
'He missed it. Yee.' The engineers blew the
whistles and rang their bells. Then Stanford
tried it again and tapped the spike and the
telegraph operators had fixed their
instruments so that the tap was reported in
all the offices east and west, and set bells to
tapping in hundreds of towns and cities...
Then Vice President T. C. Durant of the
Union Pacific took up the sledge and he
missed the spike the first time. Then
everybody slapped everybody else again
and yelled, 'He missed it too, yow!'
Meeting at Promontory Point
• Completed in 1869
– Seven years earlier than
expected
• Met at Promontory
Point, Utah
– May 10, 1869
• Chinese Workers carried in
one rail
• Irish carried in the other
• It was a huge
celebration
The Transcontinental Railroad
Why did America need Railroads?
• Communication from East to West was not
very good
• Travelling time from East to West took 6
months +
• It would help fulfil ‘Manifest Destiny’
• The U.S. needed to keep up with other
countries
• Trade links with China and Japan
• Help to bring law and order to the West
Effect of the Railroads: Quick and
easy travel to the West
• Previous methods
–
–
–
–
Wagon Train
Foot
By boat
Pony Express
• The railroad turned a 6
month journey into a
maximum of 8 days
Effect of the Railroads: Cheap land
for people wanting to go West
• Once the Railroads
were built the Railroad
companies had no use
for the excess land
• Sold land off cheap
• Benefitted
Homesteaders and
Ranchers who came
west.
Effect of the Railroads: Destruction
of the Indians
• Hunters used the Railroad
to go west to hunt the
buffalo
• Hunters were only
interested in buffalo skin
• 1875 southern buffalo herds
wiped out
• 1885 northern buffalo herds
wiped out
• Indians depended on the
buffalo, but now they were
gone! 
Effect of the Railroads: Helps develop
the Cattle Industry
• Cattle were transported
by the railroads
making it easier to
move them from Texas
to the East
• Cow Towns grew up
around these railroad
stops
Completing the Railroad