Transcript Railroads

PACIFIC RAILWAY ACT
TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
Union Pacific
Central Pacific
 Greenville Dodge
 Civil War Vets
 Ex-convicts
 Cooks
 Adventurers
 Irish Immigrants
 1086 miles of track
Leland Stanford
 Hired workers from
China
 Paid $1/day
 688 miles of track
TIME TO COMPLETE RAILROAD
 4 years to complete
Transcontinental Railroad
 Each mile required specific
materials
 400 rails per mile
 Each rail required 10 spikes
 Stimulated the economy
 People spent money on steel, coal,
timber, and other materials
MAY 10, 1869
 Promontory Summit, Utah
 5 gold and silver spikes were hammered into the tracks to join the Union Pacific
and Central Pacific Railroads
 Leland Stanford put in the last spike
 Celebrations around the nations happened
 In New York cannons blasted
 In Chicago there was a parade
 In Philadelphia they rang the Liberty Bell
CORNELIUS VANDERBILT
 Merged 3 small New York
railroads to form New York
Central
 1871 started building
Grand Central Station
 1st direct line from NYC to
Chicago
TIME ZONES
 4 times zones
 Eastern
 Central
 Mountain
 Pacific
 Federal Government ratified in 1918
 Created to avoid railroad accidents
ROBBER BARONS
 People who loot an industry and give nothing back
 Land Grants
 Railroads sold land to settlers, real estate companies, and other businesses to raise money
to build the railroads
 Railroad companies were given 120 million acres of public land
 Accused of swindling investors, bribing officials, and cheating on their contracts
CREDIT MOBILER SCANDAL
 Construction companies set up several stockholders of the Union
Pacific Railroad
 People owned both the construction company and stocks in the railroad
 Sold contracts to themselves and the railroad paid
 Millions were made by the investors
 Railroad was near bankrupt
 Congress was sold shares of stock
 Oakes Ames-Member of Congress
 Sold Shares to congress for less than Market Value
JAMES J. HILL
 Built the Great Northern Railroad
 From Wisconsin to Minnesota in the East
and to Washington in the West
 Offered low fares to people that lived
along route
 Planned routes to be near homesteads
 Did not use Federal Land Grants
 Sent supplies to the west that would go
to Asia
 Supplies went both ways
 Most successful Transcontinental
Railroad
 Only Railroad to not go bankrupt