Transcript PowerPoint - North Mac Schools

The Transcontinental
Railroad by Dakota Mercer
http://imgarcade.com/
• Around the 1850’s, settlers
began moving westward across
the United States, especially
after gold was found in
California.
• Travelling across plains,
rivers and deserts was risky
and difficult.
https://thereaganwing.files.wordpress.
com/2011/03/pioneers.jpg
www.history.com/topics/invention
s/transcontinental-railroad/print
In 1845, the New York entrepreneur,
Asa Whitney, presented a resolution in
Congress proposing funding for the
construction of a railroad that went all
the way to the Pacific.
https://freedmenspatrol.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/layin
g-rail-for-world-domination/
www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinentalrailroad/print
In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the
Pacific Railroad Act into law.
• The act said that there were two main railroad
lines.
• The Central Pacific Railroad would come from
California and the Union Pacific Railroad would
come from the Midwest.
• The two railroads would meet somewhere in the
middle.
www.ducksters.com/history/westward_exp
ansion/first_transcontinental_railroad.php
The Union Pacific Railroad and the
Central Pacific Company built the
Transcontinental Railroad.
www.bushong.net/dawn/about/college/ids100/history.shtml
The building of the
transcontinental railroad
begin in 1862.
www.history.com/topics/invent
ions/transcontinentalrailroad/print
https://s.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Rqzy2
n6Kk35SI9oVALJASg-/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA-/http://l.yimg.com/os/publishimages/news/2014-08-22/c22b01902a0c-11e4-8f13f76332612428_3224944.jpg
• Many of the laborers were
Chinese.
www.history.com/t
opics/inventions/tr
anscontinentalrailroad/print
• Working conditions were brutal.
• They used gunpowder and
nitroglycerine to blast tunnels
through the mountains, which was
very dangerous
The majority of the workers on the Union Pacific
Railroad were Irish laborers.
In Utah, a lot of the track was built by Mormon
workers.
Most of the Central Pacific Railroad was built by
Chinese immigrants
www.ducksters.com/history/westward_espansion/first_transcontinental_railroad.php
• Central Pacific Railroad dealt with
mountains and snow
• Union Pacific Railroad dealt with
Native Americans
• Native Americans felt threatened
and raided the railroad worksites
www.ducksters.com/history/westward_expansion/first_transcontinental_railroad.php
From an 1883 publication devoted to the
settlement of the pacific northwest“Railroads have been built and the means of wire
communication have been extended, the result
of which already has been the redemption and
occupation of rich areas from the primitive
wilderness”
www.historynet.com/transcontinental-railroad
Industrial Advancements
•
•
•
•
Created industrial order from nature
Surveyors used precisely calibrated instruments to
mathematically quantify curvature, elevation and
distance
The space between the rails could not vary by
more than a fraction of an inch
paper thickness and envelope sizes were
standardized within the railroad industry
www.historynet.com/transcontinental-railroad
Lengthy sets of rules governed train
operations—and even employees’
leisure hours off the job.
www.historynet.com/transcontinental-railroad
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-thisday/May/Transcontinental-RailroadCompleted.html
Seven years later, the railroad
was finished on May 10, 1869.
www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad/print
When the tracks met finally, there was a huge celebration
with people dressed in fancy clothes and a golden spike
was sledgehammered into the last spot.
www.historynet.com/transcontinental-railroad
https://www.google.com/search?q=Transcontinental+Railro
ad+golden+spike&espv=2&biw=988&bih=619&source=lnms https://www.google.com/search?q=Transco
&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIntinental+Railroad+golden+spike
rrKqpbFyAIVCdpjCh2eSgiL&dpr=1#imgrc=rux2CLpe4ByDpM
%3A
• The railroad served the North in its Civil
War efforts
•
paved the way for Western expansion
• built the fortunes of influential men
• Years later, its importance dwindled with
the rise of interstate highways and air
travel, and much of it was pulled apart
for materials for later war efforts.
Fun fact:
Before the building of the Transcontinental
Railroad it cost nearly $1000 to travel across the
country.
After the railroad was completed, the price
dropped to $150.
www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad/print
1. What year did it
end?
1.
2.
3.
4.
1850
1869
1662
1845
2. What color was the last spike that they
hammer into the track?
1. Black
2. Gold
3. Pink
4. Red
3. How many years did it take to finish it?
1. 5 years
2. 8 years
3. 7 years
4. 10 years
4. What President signed the
Transcontinental Railroad Act
Into law?
The End!
Answers for Grading the Quiz
1.1869
2. Gold
3. 7 years
4. Abraham Lincoln