THE RAILROAD

Essential Questions:

1. What was the Pacific Railway Act?

2. Who built the railroad?

3. What was the impact of the railroad?

Level 2

The Transcontinental Railroad

It linked Omaha, Nebraska with Sacramento, California

A decade long project to unite the country 1863-1869

One of the crowning achievements of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency

Considered the greatest technological feat of the 19th

century

The Pacific Railway Act

The need for the Railroad

Unite the country, East to West

A secessionist movement in California was slowly becoming more popular

The Union needed the gold and silver from California and Nevada

In May 1862, the Senate approved an act that called for the construction of the railroad

The act established two main lines:

The Central Pacific

Started in the West, Sacramento, CA

The Union Pacific

Started in the East, Omaha, Nebraska

The Pacific Railway Act

It said that each railway was required to build only 50 miles each year

The government offered each railway:

Land grants- 10 square mile per mile of track laid

Help to pay for the construction depending on the terrain

Soon both railroads began to see which company could build the longest section of track

The route followed the main trails used for the opening of the West such as the Oregon trail

Laborers

Union Pacific track was built by:

Irish laborers

Veterans of the Union and Confederate armies

Central Pacific track was built primarily by Chinese immigrants

At first Chinese laborers were thought to be too weak or fragile

But soon thousands of Chinese immigrants were hired to build the railroad

Thousands more were ‘imported’ from China

Laborers

Golden Spike

Six years after the construction began the two railroads met at Promontory Summit, Utah

On May 10, 1869 the Golden Spike was driven into the track

It symbolized the completion of the transcontinental railroad

The world's first ‘live’ media event

The hammers and spike were wired to the telegraph line

Each hammer stroke was heard as a click at telegraph stations nationwide

Credit Mobilier

Impact of the Railroad

Travel from coast-to-coast was

cut from 6 months to just 1 week

Reduced the price of goods

Psychologically united East and

West

Population Explosion:

Settlers rushed into the west

By 1890 the US Census

declared the American

frontier was gone

Served as a symbol that

American ingenuity, money,

determination, and organization

could accomplish great tasks

Homestead Act 1862

Homestead Act