First_Transcontinental_Railroad_(North_America First Transcontinental Railroad (North America From Sterwiki transcontinental railroad The transcontinental railroad in North America became a reality on May 10, 1869, when the tracks of the Union Pacific joined those of the Central Pacific at Promontory, Utah. The event fulfilled dreams of spanning the continent that were spurred by settlement of the American West and that dated back to at least 1845. Interest in a transcontinental railroad was heightened by the acquisition of Oregon (1846) and California (1848) and the subsequent gold rush. In 1853, Congress appropriated $150,000 to defray expenses of surveying feasible routes, but the question of the best one quickly became a matter of sectional controversy. Once the South left the Union, Congress pushed through the Pacific Railroad Act (July 1, 1862), which authorized the Central Pacific to build eastward from San Francisco and the Union Pacific to build westward from Omaha, Nebr., via South Pass; the two were to join at the California-Nevada line. Each company was to receive 400 ft (122 m) of right-of-way through public (or 100 ft/31 m through private) lands and 10 alternate square-mile sections of public land for each mile of track laid. Loans of $16,000 to $48,000 per mile depending on the grade of the terrain were also available as a first mortgage on the railroad. In 1864, Congress doubled the land grant and made the financial subsidy a second lien on the property. Congress yet again amended the original legislation in 1866 to allow the Central Pacific to advance eastward until it met the Union Pacific, thereby turning the project into a construction race. Chinese workers were employed by the Central Pacific, and the Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans. During the winter of 1868 69 the two railroads employed about 25,000 laborers. Both lines experienced many problems. The Central Pacific had to ship in steel rails from the East Coast by sea, whereas the Union Pacific had to transport ballast and lumber for crossties from Wisconsin. The latter company experienced difficulty with the Plains Indians, primarily because railroad crews were slaughtering the Indians' buffalo herds for meat. The Central Pacific had to tunnel through the High Sierras, bridge deep gorges, and construct 40 mi (64 km) of snowsheds to protect against snow and avalanches. Ultimately, the Union Pacific laid 1,086 mi (1,747 km) of track, and the Central Pacific, 689 mi (1,109 km). A number of scandals accompanied the transcontinental project. The most famous involved Crédit Mobilier of America, the Union Pacific's construction company, through which some of the railroad's directors and various politicians pocketed enormous profits. While the first transcontinental line was opening the Great Plains, three other railroads were pushing toward the West Coast. By 1883 the Southern Pacific connected New Orleans and Los Angeles, the Santa Fe ran between Chicago and Southern California via Albuquerque, and the Northern Pacific extended from Duluth to Portland. Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway was also attended by scandal (see Pacific Scandal), but the main line between Montreal and the Pacific coast was completed in 1885. W. Eugene Hollon Bibliography: Ambrose, Stephen E., Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863 1869 (2000). Athearn, R. C., Union Pacific Country (1971; repr. 1976). Bain, D. H., Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad (1999). Howard, R. W., The Story of the First Transcontinental Railroad (1962). Riegal, R. E., The Story of the Western Railroads (1926; repr. 1964). Robertson, D. B., Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History, 2 vols. (1986). Williams, J. H., A Great and Shining Road (1988). Top of Page How to Cite this Article Quelle "First_Transcontinental_Railroad_(North_America" : Wikipedia.org Main page for "First_Transcontinental_Railroad_(North_America"