First Transcontinental Railroad Research Paper

The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States was built in the 1860’s. Its construction was considered to be one of the greatest American technological achievements of the 19th century. The purpose of the railroad was to connect the developing railway network of the Eastern coast with the western United States. The railway was completed in its entirety on May 10, 1869. The infrastructure not only gave America a nation-wide transportation network, but it forever changed the American West.

In 1862, Congress passed and signed the Pacific Railroad Bill, which granted public land and funds to build a transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Railroad would lay tracks from California heading east, and the Union Pacific Railroad would lay tracks from the Missouri River west. The Congress supported it with 30-year U.S. government bonds and extensive land grants of government-owned land. Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington,
The alternatives were to travel by sea around the tip of South America, a distance of 18,000 miles; or to cross the Isthmus of Panama, then travel north by ship to California. Each route took months and was dangerous and expensive. The transcontinental railroad would make it possible to complete the trip in five days at a cost of $150 for a first-class sleeper.

Work on the railroad was physically difficult and at times dangerous, and attracting workers was a challenge. The majority of the Central Pacific's laborers were Chinese. Both railroad companies actively recruited Chinese laborers because they were regarded as hard workers and were willing to accept a lower wage than white workers, mostly Irish immigrants. They did prodigious work building the line over and through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and across Nevada to the meeting in