The RailroadsThe first transcontinental railroad

The American West

The Iron Horse• Tom Thumb

– 1830– Peter Cooper

• Raced a horse drawn carriage– Due to damage the train

lost– But, people realized what

a train could do• This set off the great rail

chase

Dangers of the Railroad

• Early Travel– Dirty, Uncomfortable,

and dangerous– No protection from the

weather– No Protection from

engine sparks– Rail Cars would tip as

they turned corners

The Building of the Railroads

• Built in 1860s • Two companies

– Central Pacific Railroad Company– Union Pacific Railroad Company

• Met and joined railroad in Promontory, Utah

• Date of completion 10 May 1869• By 1893 there were 6 major railroad

companies

The Transcontinental Railroad

The Central Pacific Railroad• Began in California

– Workers were hard to find– All wanted to work in the

gold mines– Wanted to build quickly so

they could earn more money

• Chinese Immigrants worked for the Central Pacific– They blasted through the

Sierra Nevada Mountains

The Union Pacific Railroad• Began in Missouri

– Charged $50,000 per mile – only cost $30,000 per mile to build

– Workers poured in to work after the Civil War ended

– Many Irish, German, and Swedish Immigrants worked for the Union Pacific

• Harder to build than the Central Pacific– More distance– Less wood– Less water– More Indian Attacks

• Laid about 2 miles of track per day for $4 per worker

Union Pacific Railroad

Union Pacific Railroad

Union Pacific Railroad

Central Pacific Railroad

Central Pacific Railroad

Central Pacific Railroad

Transcontinental Railroad

Transcontinental Railroad

Transcontinental Railroad

Promontory Point, Utah

Transcontinental Railroad• When they came to drive the last spike,

Governor Stanford, president of the Central Pacific, took the sledge, and the first time he struck he missed the spike and hit the rail.

• What a howl went up! Irish, Chinese, Mexicans, and everybody yelled with delight. 'He missed it. Yee.' The engineers blew the whistles and rang their bells. Then Stanford tried it again and tapped the spike and the telegraph operators had fixed their instruments so that the tap was reported in all the offices east and west, and set bells to tapping in hundreds of towns and cities... Then Vice President T. C. Durant of the Union Pacific took up the sledge and he missed the spike the first time. Then everybody slapped everybody else again and yelled, 'He missed it too, yow!'

Meeting at Promontory Point• Completed in 1869

– Seven years earlier than expected

• Met at Promontory Point, Utah– May 10, 1869

• Chinese Workers carried in one rail

• Irish carried in the other

• It was a huge celebration

The Transcontinental Railroad

Why did America need Railroads?

• Communication from East to West was not very good

• Travelling time from East to West took 6 months +

• It would help fulfil ‘Manifest Destiny’• The U.S. needed to keep up with other

countries• Trade links with China and Japan• Help to bring law and order to the West

Effect of the Railroads: Quick and easy travel to the West

• Previous methods – Wagon Train– Foot– By boat– Pony Express

• The railroad turned a 6 month journey into a maximum of 8 days

Effect of the Railroads: Cheap land for people wanting to go

West• Once the Railroads

were built the Railroad companies had no use for the excess land

• Sold land off cheap• Benefitted

Homesteaders and Ranchers who came west.

Effect of the Railroads: Destruction of the Indians

• Hunters used the Railroad to go west to hunt the buffalo

• Hunters were only interested in buffalo skin

• 1875 southern buffalo herds wiped out

• 1885 northern buffalo herds wiped out

• Indians depended on the buffalo, but now they were gone!

Effect of the Railroads: Helps develop the Cattle Industry

• Cattle were transported by the railroads making it easier to move them from Texas to the East

• Cow Towns grew up around these railroad stops

Completing the Railroad