The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a 1,912-mile continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. The rail line was built by three pri…
What was a negative impact of the transcontinental railroad?
What were some negative effects of the railroad? However, the Transcontinental Railroad had a negative impact on the Plains Indians. They were forced to move away from the railroad despite it running through Indian Territory. The workers often killed buffalo for meat, and the track itself disrupted the Plains Indians buffalo hunting.
How did railroads change the American economy?
How did railroads change American economy? The advent of a rail network expanded the available markets for goods. An item for sale in New York could now make it out west in a much shorter time, and the railroads allowed the movement of a wider variety of goods much farther distances.
How did railroads change American lives?
Railroads altered American society and economic life in fundamental ways. In short, they made transportation of goods and people much cheaper and quicker. They enabled the shipping of bulk goods like farm produce and coal from one end of the country to another. How did Railroad affect society? It made commerce possible on a vast scale.
How much did the transcontinental railroad workers get paid?
How much did transcontinental railroad workers get paid? They were paid a maximum of $30 a month and often lived in the underground tunnels they were constructing, some of which collapsed onto the workers. (More than 1,000 Chinese workers died in rail-related accidents.) By contrast, Irish workers got $35 a month, and living space.
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How much land did the Transcontinental Railroad receive?
The two lines of track would meet in the middle (the bill did not designate an exact location) and each company would receive 6,400 acres of land (later doubled to 12,800) and $48,000 in government bonds for every mile of track built. From the beginning, then, the building of the transcontinental railroad was set up in terms of a competition between the two companies.
How long did it take to travel the Transcontinental Railroad?
With the completion of the track, the travel time for making the 3,000-mile journey across the United States was cut from a matter of months to under a week.
What was the impact of the Pacific Railroad Act?
In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, tasking them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, the two companies would race toward each other from Sacramento, ...
Why did Thomas Durant miss the spike?
Durant swung and missed – likely because of a hangover he was suffering from the previous evening’s party in Ogden. A railroad worker ultimately drove the final spike at 12:47 p.m. on May 10, 1869.
What act chartered the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad Companies?
Contents. In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, tasking them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west.
What are the two competing railroads?
Two Competing Companies: The Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad. The Pacific Railroad Act stipulated that the Central Pacific Railroad Company would start building in Sacramento and continue east across the Sierra Nevada, while a second company, the Union Pacific Railroad, would build westward from the Missouri River, ...
How many miles of track were laid east of the Missouri River?
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 1848.
What was the impact of the Transcontinental Railroad?
The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad. On May 10, 1869, as the last spike was driven in the Utah desert, the blows were heard across the country. Telegraph wires wrapped around spike and sledgehammer transmitted the impact instantaneously east and west. In San Francisco and New York, wires had been connected to cannons facing outward ...
What was the railroad?
The railroad was America's first technology corridor. Improved Public Discourse. As it encouraged the growth of American business, so too did it promote evolution of the nation's public discourse and intellectual life.
What was the web of rails?
A Web of Rails. The transcontinental railroad did not long remain the sole venue of travel through America's center. Lines spiderwebbed outward from its branch points, conveying north and south the settlers coming west to consume millions of acres of land.
What happened to the wires in San Francisco and New York?
In San Francisco and New York, wires had been connected to cannons facing out ward across the ocean. When the signal from the spike came through, the cannons fired. The world was put on notice: the transcontinental railroad was completed and America was moving to the forefront of the world's stage. The World Grew Smaller.
What happened in 1890?
By 1890, even the Powder River Valley — the rich hunting ground so hard won by red Cloud and the Oglala Sioux — would be lost. New treaties scattered the Indians to reservations and opened the last great Native American holding to the settlers so steadily branching outward from the iron road.
Who dreamed of a competing canal?
A Competing Canal. Railroad pioneer Asa Whitney had once dreamed an iron route would re-center the world toward America, making it a conduit of exchange between Asia and Europe. In this sense, his vision of the grand project remained unfulfilled.
Was the Transcontinental Railroad a battle?
The transcontinental railroad was not the beginning of white settlers' battles with Native Americans. Nor was it the final nail in the coffin. But it was an irrevocable marker of encroaching white society, that unstoppable force which would force Indians onto reservations within decades.
Who envisioned the railroad?
A quarter century before that moment at Promontory, Ralph Waldo Emerson envisioned what the railroad might mean for American life.
What did the railroads represent?
Trains and tracks out beyond Chicago and St. Louis symbolized progress, prosperity, and the promise of the future. For many Americans, railroads and the West seemed the embodiment of the American dream. Even if some westerners questioned the dream and feared its consequences, no one doubted that railroads in the West represented a power for change that was undeniable and perhaps even irresistible.
What was the railroad foreground?
The railroad was foreground; everything else was background . No single building was more important in that railroad establishment than the depot. At the simplest level, the depot was where the company conducted its daily affairs. Here emigrants from a dozen places stepped off the cars and into a new life.
What was Cox sure of?
Cox was sure that the earth itself would be touched by Emerson’s magic rod.
Why did towns lay out Main Street?
Little wonder that so many towns laid out Main Street to run directly to the company buildings on Railroad Avenue. Main Street recognized the power and promise of Railroad Avenue. For every expectant immigrant or restless young person, the railroad was the way to the West or the way out of town to a wider world.
What was the West built with?
The settlers’ West was built with wood from logged-over forests of the Great Lakes.
What was the Western Depot?
Like the town square in more eastern places, the western depot was a public space —a place to get the latest news and hear the freshest gossip. This was the place to check the time, inquire about the arrival of the new Sears catalogue, and argue about politics or the weather.