The Transcontinental Railroad The completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad was an important event in the United States history. There were many challenges in building it, but after it was finished, it connected the East Coast of the United States to the West Coast. The railroad took three whole years to build, with the help of two railroad companies and thousands of other hired workers. Each railroad company got one side of the country. The Union Pacific got the East side of the country, starting at Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific got the West side of the country, starting at Sacramento, California. Both companies joined tracks on May 10, 1869 in Promontory Point, Utah. During the time of the building, The Civil War
Completed in 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad opened new doors for the United States. In order for this to happen though, some had to be closed. Our country was in desperate need on some of these changes, but some we could have lived without. This great connection of the coasts brought with it many positive and negative effects on the Native Americans, society, and the environment.
The transcontinental railroad connected the East Coast to the West Coast. With the merge between the West Coast’s Central Pacific railroad, which started in Sacramento and conquered the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the East Coast’s Union Pacific railroad, which
In 1864 Congress approved the Northern Pacific Railway to be built. The NPR is the first transcontinental railroad in the northern part of the country. It is 8,316 miles long, beginning in Minnesota and ending in Washington state, with many branches going off the main line. When congress approved it they also supplied nearly 40million acres of land grants to build the railroad on. Construction didn 't go underway until 1870, and the rail road was finally christened to open on Sept. 8 1888.
The American 16th president Abraham Lincoln approved the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, giving building contracts to only two railroad companies. The railroad later becomes a symbol of unity between the broken American nation. The construction of the railroad helped build the foundation of the transportation
In 1862 Miners began to invade the rocky mountains and plains, clashing with Indians, the Lakota Siox massacre or capture 1000 people on the Minnesota Frontier. John Henry goes to the mine to get money for his family in a time of need. The captain tells John Henry that the mountain is caving in but John tells him that its just his hammer suckin wind.
The Transcontinental Railroad transformed the United States socially by allowing people to travel across the country, bringing people together, and beginning discrimination against the Chinese. The first way that the Transcontinental Railroad transformed the United States is by allowing people to travel across the country. Many ads invited “tourists and pleasure seekers” to use the Transcontinental Railroad to see mountains, valley, lakes, and more attractions (Doc G). Before the Transcontinental Railroad, it was difficult and dangerous to travel away from home, but the railroads made it easy, safe, and convenient to explore the country.
The railroad was first designed by George Stephenson whose original idea was to use steam to run the train and make transportation faster. When the US started using railroads and trains they purchased them from the Stephen Works company from Britain. “In the 1850s a boom in railroad development across the North was changing business organization and management and reducing freight costs. Railroads were influencing a rise in real estate values, increasing regional concentrations of industry, the size of business units and stimulating growth in investment banking and agriculture.
The first transcontinental railroad in the United States was built between 1863 and 1869. It was 1,776 miles long and covered the western half of America from Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In 1869, the transcontinental railroad connected California to Omaha, Nebraska and eastern cities. By 1900, the railroad track grew from 35,000 miles of track to 167,000 miles, which was more than the total of railroad route in Europe and Russia. Prior to the transcontinental railroad was built, many settlers began to move westward across the United States.
After the railroad lines had been built out west changes occurred for both the Western and Eastern United States. By 1860 railroads connected nearly every major city and over 80 percent of farms were 5 miles from the railroad. It was easier and faster to transport goods such as; lumber, grain, corn, etc. to the Eastern United States. Farming changed with railroads because farmers could put their products and animals on the trains and make money. Within the first 10 years of completion the railroad had shipped over $50 million in goods.
The Transcontinental Railroad was the first line across the continent. The railroad line stretched from Omaha, Nebraska, all the way to Sacramento, California. This railroad allowed the United States the opportunity to expand westward, as both people and resources would be able to be shipped much faster than before. In 1862 The Pacific Railway Act was passed, which allowed the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad to construct the lines for the transcontinental railroad. On May 10, 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was established at Promontory, Utah.
This gave birth to the creation of a huge network of railroads including the transcontinental railroads. The transcontinental railroad connected the United States from New York all the way to California. The growth of the railroads was greater in the west then the east. This new system shortened travel time from the eastern part of the United States to the Western part. It dropped
In 1868 the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central merged to form Penn Central. There was a ceremony for the driving of the “Last Spike” at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869. Railroads played a large role in the development of the United States from the industrial revolution to the settlement of the West. For the first time the opposite ends of the nation had been linked and it was possible to reach distant California. Although the South started early to build railways, it concentrated on short lines linking cotton regions to oceanic or river ports, and the absence of an interconnected network was a major handicap during the Civil War.
The Tremendous Impact of Railroads on America In the late 19th century, railroads propelled America into an era of unprecedented growth, prosperity, and convenient transportation. Prior to the building of the railroads, America lacked the proper and rapid transportation to make traveling across the country economical or practical. Lengthy travel was often cumbersome, costly, and dangerous.
The Transcontinental Railroad was built in two parts: the Union Pacific Railway and the Central Pacific Railway. The Union Pacific built west from Omaha, Nebraska while the Central Pacific built east from Sacramento, California. Both of the railways ended in Promontory, Utah where they joined together, completing the railroad with a golden spike. The railroad had 13,500 employees and
America’s first steam locomotive made its debut in 1830, and over the next two decades railroad tracks linked many cities on the East Coast. By 1850, some 9,000 miles of track had been laid east of the Missouri River. During that same period, the first settlers began to move westward across the United States; this trend increased dramatically after the discovery of gold in California in 1849. The overland journey–across mountains, plains, rivers and deserts–was risky and difficult, and many westward migrants instead chose to travel by sea, taking the six-month route around Cape Horn at the tip of South America, or risking yellow fever and other diseases by crossing the Isthmus of Panama and traveling via ship to San