Transcontinental Railroad Research Paper

Your about to take a trip to California and you have some options. You either have to travel on a six-month trip on boat or a week trip on train. Take a longer trip risking malaria and other tropical diseases or a shorter trip in a cabin usually disease free. You might think I’m crazy, but this was how much the Transcontinental Railroad saved risk and money during the 19th century. Once the Transcontinental Railroad was completed this was the ultimate way across the country, and killed the idea of a Northwest Passage. During the 19th century, many people in the United States started believing in Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny is the belief that Americans had the right to spread across the continent. We achieved this feat by buying the
Louisiana Territory, the Mexican Cession, the Texas Annexation, the Oregon Country, Florida, and the Gadsden Purchase. Interest in a transcontinental railroad was heighted after the gold rush in California. People had to go by carriage since there wasn’t a rail to California (Hollon). The journey overland across the mountains, plains, rivers, and desserts was risky, and difficult. With the many risks, people instead chose to travel by sea taking a six-month route around the Cape Horn at the top of South America, risking yellow fever and other diseases by crossing the Isthmus of Panama, and traveling via ship to San Francisco (Transcontinental). After Manifest destiny was completed, and the Civil War ended, Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 that called for two companies to build the first ever transcontinental railroad. A transcontinental railroad is a one that stretches across a continent from coast to coast (American, 549). The railroad would be a “land grant railroad” meaning that the government would give each company 6,400 acres of land and $48,000 for every mile of track placed (Jones). The deadline of this massive project was July 1, 1876. If the railroad wasn’t completed by then the two companies would have to forfeit the land, money, and all of the constructed track. This would help the whole country bringing supplies, new towns-folk, rapid means of transportation, and cheap way to transport heavy loads to the western frontier.
Two companies worked on the two railroads that eventually got connected. One was the Union Pacific Railroad and the other was the Central Pacific Railroad. The Union Pacific railroad started building a rail line westward from Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific Railroad began there track eastward from Sacramento, California eventually meeting in the middle (American, 549). Both companies had to deal with employment. Employment was scarce after the Civil War. Chinese workers were mostly employed by the Central Pacific, and the Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans. During the winter of 1868-1869 the two railroads only employed 25,000 laborers (Hollon). Many other problems on the building of the rail occurred. The Union Pacific Railroad workers got killed by the Plains Indians; tribes included the Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne (Transcontinental). The Indians would attack primarily because of the progress of the white man and his “iron horse” across their native lands. The crews of workers were also slaughtering the Indian’s buffalo herds for meat (Hollon). The Central Pacific had to tunnel through the High Sierras in Nevada, bridge deep gorges, and construct 40 miles of snow sheds to protect the laborers against the snow and avalanches (Hollon). After the hardships of building the railroad, it was finally finished on May 10, 1869. There were many robbers and scandals during the building of the transcontinental railroad. The most famous one involved a company named Credit Mobilier of America. This company was a construction company founded in 1864 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. Congressman Oaks Ames of Massachusetts sold his fellow members of Congress shares of stock in Credit Mobilier at less than par value meaning the Congressmen were getting more stock for less money. This meant the Congressmen received huge dividends. In 1872 these deals and others including Vice President Schuyler Colfax, became public knowledge. Promoters, including Ames were charged with making enormous profits. The House of Representatives condemned Ames, considered the impeachment of Colfax, and published the names of the officials that Ames had dealt with (Gould).
On May 10, 1869 at Promontory, Utah the two railroads met (The Transcontinental). The Transcontinental Railroad had 1,775 miles of track (The Transcontinental) The bridge was such a success, the companies finished seven years ahead of the deadline (Jones). A golden spike was driven to mark the joining of the rails, and the joining of the east and west (The Transcontinental). This was a great accomplishment for the United States because railroads and locomotives used to be local and once the rail was done there was one going across the country. Locomotives trumped both horse and boat when invented. Locomotives are machines that move trains of carts on a railroad track. A British engineer named Richard Trevithick built the first steam locomotive in 1804 (Withuhn). Steam engines powered the first locomotives ever built. These engines burned coal, fuel, oil, or wood in a special furnace called a firebox. The heat turns water in the engine’s boiler into steam. From the 1830’s to the 1950’s, steam locomotives pulled nearly all railroad trains. This transcontinental railroad was also the first transcontinental railroad ever (Withuhn).
Railroads spurred major industry in America.
Railroads were so important in the United States that by 1900, there was more miles of rail than in Europe and Russia combined (America, 575). Having a transcontinental railroad meant that the importance of the common railroad was carried throughout the country. Railroads helped businesses grow by linking them to resources, factories, and more markets, railroads employed thousands of workers, and railroads opened up growth and settlement in places that weren’t able to be reached by carriage. Best of all, railroads were fast and could ship huge amounts of goods more cheaply (Moser, 2013). Before the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, it cost nearly one thousand dollars to travel across the country. After the railroad was completed, the price dropped to one hundred fifty dollars
(Transcontinental).
The Transcontinental Railroad was a positive influence on the American way of life back then.
Not only was this rail a positive influence, it was the biggest influence of the time period. This rail connected the east to the west; no other rail could do that. Although this rail was enormously popular in the beginning, the legacy of the Transcontinental Railroad has dimmed over the years. Although many trains are still used in other countries, the main option for land transportation is car. Airplanes have also trumped trains, but if a heavy load is needed most still depend on train. The transcontinental railroad is not in use today because most old railroads got ripped apart for the war effort. The transcontinental railroad deservers iconic status because without the transcontinental railroad people in the 1800s would still be hauling all these things in a carriage, and most of the cities would be considered “bad places to start a city” on carriage wouldn’t have been created. Back in this time period there were cars, but these cars weren’t nearly as fast as a train, and needed constant repair. So which one would you pick, more difficult, risky, and sketchy one thousand dollar route on boat or carriage or the easier more relaxed one hundred fifty dollar route on train?

Works Cited
American Nation. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2003. 549
575. Print
Gould, L. Lewis. “Credit Mobilier of America.” Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.
Grolier
Online. Web. 12/11/2013.
Hollon, W. Eugene. “Transcontinental Railroad.” Grolier Multimedia
Encyclopedia. Groiler Online. Web. 12/11/2013.
Jones, R. Steven. “Transcontinental Railroad, Building of.” Dictionary of American
History 8. (2003): 181-182. U.S. History In Context. Web. 13/11/2013.
“The Transcontinental Railroad.” The American Scence:Events. Danbury: Grolier
Educational, 1999. 46. Print
“Trancontinental Railroad.” History.com. A&E Networks, 2013. Web. 12/11/2013.
Withuhn, L. William. “Locomotive.” World Book Student. World Book. Web. 13/11/2013.

The Irons Horse’s Grand Path (http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn308/Hannizans/School/Transcontinental_railroad_route-1.png) Sangu M. Mbekelu
English 8C
Research Paper
Ms.Stepowany
Dec. 18, 2013