“The Railroads”
Chapter 9
Section 2
Linking the Nation

Pacific Railway Act
Signed by President Abraham Lincoln and
began the railroad boom
 Provided for the construction of the
transcontinental railroad by the Union Pacific
and the Central Pacific
 The government offered each railroad
company land along its right-of-way to
encourage rapid construction of the tracks.

Linking the Nation

The Union Pacific and Greenville Dodge
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In 1865 under the direction of engineer Greenville
Dodge, the Union Pacific began pushing westward
from Omaha, Nebraska.
Union Pacific employed 10,000 workers.
The Big Four and the Central Pacific


Charley Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins,
and Collins P. Huntington owned stock in the
Central Pacific.
Due to shortage of labor, the Central Pacific hired
10,000 workers from China.
Railroads Spur Growth

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By linking the nation, railroads increased the
size of markets for many products
Linking Other Lines
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Seven giant systems with terminals in major and
smaller cities controlled most rail traffic
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Benefits of a National System

To make rail service more reliable, in 1883 the
American Railway Association divided the country
into four time zones
The Transcontinental Railroad
It was 1,775 miles
from Omaha,
Nebraska to
Sacramento,
California.
The Transcontinental Railroad
Railroads had already transformed life in the
East, at the end of the Civil War railroad
tracks stopped at the Missouri River. For a
quarter of a century, men had dreamed of
building a line from coast to coast.
Union Pacific
Union Pacific went from Omaha, Nebraska,
westward to Promontory Summit/Point Utah.
The Central Pacific

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Central Pacific Railway system carved their
sections through the Sierra Nevada
Mountains.
They went from Sacramento California, East
to Promontory Summit/Point Utah.
Central Pacific Chinese Labor
Central Pacific Bridges
Central Pacific
Cape Horn
Bloomer’s Cut
CPRR Summit Tunnel (#6), Tunnels #7 & #8,
Snowsheds, "Chinese" Walls, Donner Trail, and
Dutch Flat Donner - Lake Wagon Road
at Donner Pass
The Summit Tunnel was 7,042 feet above the sea. This
was the highest point reached by the CP. When they
were finished, the facings were off by only two inches,
a feat that could hardly be equaled in the twenty-first
century. Clement had done it with black powder,
nitroglycerin and muscle power. He had not used
electric or steam-driven drills, steam engines to power
scoop shovels, or any gas or electric-powered carts or
cars to haul out the broken granite. There were no
robots, no mechanical devices. Well over 95 percent of
the work was done by the Chinese men. They and their
foremen and the bosses, Clement and Crocker and
Strobridge, had created one of the greatest moments
in American history.”
Newcastle: Original 1864 Grade,
1909 Realignment, Trestle, &
Tunnel #18
Promontory, Utah
May 10, 1869
"The LAST SPIKE"
"May God continue the unity of our Country as this Railroad
unites the two great Oceans of the world. Presented by
David Hewes San Francisco."
The Transcontinental Railroad
In 1866, the CPR had 44 blizzards while tunneling
through the Sierras. In 1869, the CPR laid 360 miles
of track. On April 28, 1869, the CPR crew set a
record of laying 10 miles in twelve hours.
The Land Grant System

Land Grants
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Railroads would sell the
land to settlers, real
estate companies, and
other businesses
Government awarded
railroad companies over
120 million acres of land
Robber Barons

Jay Gould
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Stock fraud
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The Credit Mobilier Scandal
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Using information as a business owner to manipulate stock
prices and make larger gains
Union Pacific investors got rich by paying inflated bills
from a construction company they controlled
The Great Northern
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Became the most successful transcontinental railroad
and the only one that was not eventually forced into
bankruptcy