The Transcontinental Railroad And Westward Expansion Essay

, Research Paper

The Transcontinental Railroad and Westward Expansion

Thesis: The transcontinental railroad greatly increased Westward expansion in

the United States of America during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The history of the United States has been influenced by England in many ways.

In the second half of the 1800’s, the railroad, which was invented in England,

had a major effect on Western expansion in the United States.

“Railroads were born in England, a country with dense

populations, short distances between cities, and large

financial resources. In America there were different

circumstances, a sparse population in a huge country, large

stretches between cities, and only the smallest amounts of

money.” (”Railroad” 85)

The first American railroads started in the 1830’s from the Atlantic ports of

Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah

(Douglas 23). Within twenty years, four rail lines had crossed the Alleghenies

to reach their goal on `Western Waters’ of the Great Lakes or the tributaries of

the Mississippi. Meanwhile, other lines had started West of the Appalachian

mountains, and by the mid-1850’s Chicago, St. Louis, and Memphis were connected

to the East. Still other lines were stretching Westward, beyond the Mississippi.

An international route connected New England and Montreal and another one

crossed Southern Ontario between Niagara, New York, and the Detroit River.

During the 1850’s, North and South routes were developed both East and West of

the Alleghenies. It was not until after the Civil War, however, that a permanent

railroad bridge was constructed across the Ohio River. After the Civil War, the

pace of railroad building increased. The Pacific railroads, the Union Pacific

building from Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific building from Sacramento,

California, had started to build a transcontinental railroad during the war to

help promote national unity. They were joined at Promontory, Utah, on May 10,

1869, completing the first rail connection across the continent.

Before the transcontinental railroad, the Eastern railroads had lines running

only as far West as Omaha, Nebraska. The Western railroads had a few lines

running North and South in California, far West of the wall of the Sierra Nevada

Mountains. In between these two networks was a huge gap of about seventeen

hundred miles of plains and mountain ranges. Closing this gap was a dream shared

by many Americans. Businessmen thought of all the money they could make by

having an entire continent full of customers and using the railroads to serve

their needs. Romantics dreamed of the discoveries of wild Indians, scouts and

hunters, and, of course, gold. Gold had been a desired find throughout the

exploration of America. The California Gold Rush of 1849 again created much

excitement about the search for gold.

The Pacific Railroads were founded when the Civil War was in progress. Until

the war was over, the transcontinental railroad was a giant enterprise stalled

by much bickering between a reluctant Congress and the Army, who had clamored

for it (Cooke 254). If it had been left to the government, it would have taken

another twenty years to complete the transcontinental railroad. However, it was

a commercial venture, and it was fortunately fed by the adrenaline of

competition. There were two railroad companies building the transcontinental

railroad, the Union Pacific from the East, and the Central Pacific from the West.

The two companies struggled to beat each other in slamming down a record mileage

of track. At first, Congress avidly pursued the project and they had stipulated

that the Central Pacific should stop when it reached the California Border

(Congress was full of Easterners). In 1865, after much argument about the aid

the government was providing to the two companies, the actual construction of

the transcontinental railroad was started. Then in 1866, Congress decided that

two companies should build as fast as possible and meet wherever they came

together (255).

First, the Union Pacific sent out location parties, tracing the line and

clearing the path by killing the Sioux and the buffalo in the way of the

railroad. Then came the construction gangs who, working in shifts, graded

(flattened) the land by as much as a hundred miles a stretch. Behind them came

the track-laying crews, each consisting of ten thousand men and as many animals.

For each mile of track, the government was loaning the railroad from $16,000,

for flat land, to $48,000, for mountainous land (”Railroad” 86). The supplies

needed to lay a single mile of track included forty train cars to carry four

hundred tons of rail and timber, ties, bridgings, fuel, and food, which all had

to be assembled in a depot on the Missouri River. But the Union Pacific had the

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