It was built on land grants, government loans, and government guaranteed bonds. When their loans came due, they refused to pay and the government had to sue. Most U.S. roads discontinued use of steam locomotives by the 1950s. How did the transcontinental railroad affect the economy? Transcontinental Railroad summary: The First Transcontinental Railroad was built crossing the western half of America and it was pieced together between 1863 and 1869. Without the railroad then there might not have been as much trading from the West which would of resulted in a poor economy and fewer people interested in moving west. The Transcontinental Railroad Was Initiated During the Civil War. The Transcontinental Railroad was a dream of a country set on the concept of Manifest Destiny. In an 1872 article, naturalist John Muir wrote that the transcontinental railroad “annihilated” time and space. These two companies then began constructing what would become the transcontinental railroad. It made the Western U.S. more important. Construction of the Union Pacific section of the Transcontinental Railroad across Devil's Gate Bridge, Utah, circa 1869. The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 had a huge impact on the West. Most of them eventually disappeared, but others, such as Laramie, Wyoming, evolved into towns that provided rail terminals and repair facilities. The United States manufactured 30% of the worlds goods by the 1900. What made the transcontinental railroad so important? The impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on Native Americans The Transcontinental Railroad was completed 150 years ago, in 1869. The Central Pacific released Chinese workers in April 1869 with the completion of the railroad at Promontory, Utah. Some desired it, some built it, and some did everything in their power to stop it. "The presence of Chinese immigrants did not create the economic uncertainties of the 1870s, but they were often blamed nonetheless.”. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! As historian George Stanley wrote in The Canadians, "Bonds of steel as well as of sentiment were needed to hold the new Confederation together. While the railroad's construction was a mammoth undertaking, its effects on the country were equally profound. There was a time when traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast meant riding for months in a horse-drawn wagon or stagecoach, or sailing southward to Panama and then crossing the Isthmus to board another ship for a journey up the other coast. The Central Pacific began in Sacramento, California working toward the East. At the height of the transcontinental construction period, the Central Pacific employed over 12,000 Chinese workers, which was more than 90 percent of the company's workforce. The Transcontinental Railroad was the first continuous railroad line across the United States and opened for through traffic on May 10, 1869 when Central Pacific Railroad President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit. That slaughter impacted Native Americans, who had hunted buffalo in moderation, and weakened their resistance to settlement of the west. Upon completion of the railroad, many Chinese workers returned to California in search of employment. In 1872, just a few years after the transcontinental railroad’s completion, Aaron Montgomery Ward started the first mail-order catalog business. Additionally, about 7,000 cities and towns across the country began as Union Pacific depots and water stops. Diesel locomotives were first developed in Europe after World War I, and U.S. railroads began to use them widely in the 1930s and 1940s. Why was the Transcontinental Railroad approved by the U.S. Department of War? Who was the second heart transplant patient? The advantages for business are almost obvious. The bulding of the Transcontinential railroad was a negative effect because to build the Railroad that also means that the buffalo that was everywhere had to be killed off. The railroad helped to the open unexplored interior regions in the country, leading to new settlement areas which would otherwise have not developed. The Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869, had dramatic economic, cultural, and political significanceto the development of the United States. Because of the grand scale of the new nation, and the fact that political considerations often overrode economic realities (e.g.… Who built the first railroad across the United States? The transcontinental railroad had a major effect on how Americans perceived their nation, and it became a symbol of America’s growing industrial power and a source of confidence that led them to take on even more ambitious quests. The first train carried a load of 10 tons of iron. Map of the transcontinental route of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad and its connections, circa 1883. “What the transcontinental railroad did was bring the West into the world, and the world into the West… Over a third of all freight transport happens via the railway system, but our railroads have not always been as expansive as they are today. “What the transcontinental railroad did was bring the West into the world, and the world into the West,” explains James P. Ronda, a retired University of Tulsa history professor and co-author, with Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes, of The West the Railroads Made. It was 1,776 miles long and served for the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States to be connected by rail for the first time in history. In addition to transporting western food crops and raw materials to East Coast markets and manufactured goods from East Coast cities to the West Coast, the railroad also facilitated international trade. Transcontinental Railroad summary: The First Transcontinental Railroad was built crossing the western half of America and it was pieced together between 1863 and 1869. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Before the railroad, the fastest way to migrate to the West was by wagon, a journey fraught with danger over plains, deserts, mountains and rivers. In the West, the Central Pacific would be dominated by the “Big Four”–Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington and Mark Hopkins. It authorized creation of two companies, the Central Pacific in the west and the Union Pacific in the mid-west, to build the railroad. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. The first freight train to travel eastward from California carried a load of Japanese tea. The First Transcontinental Railroad stretched from the East Coast of the United States to the West Coast. Trains offer an efficient way to move goods over long distances. The railroad was first developed in Great Britain. The Transcontinental Railroad was important to not only the Cattle Industry but also Westward Expansion. For additional facts refer to the History of Urbanization in America. It also encouraged the development of towns along the railroad, as the railroad made the west less isolated. As Richard White, author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, says, “They put little of their own money in it —they didn’t have much. The steel highway improved the lives of millions of city dwellers. The railroad's ability to connect both coasts with a relatively quick form of transportation opened markets for goods that did not exist earlier. In fact, the building of the Intercolonial Railway was a condition written into the Constitution Act, 1867. The development of railroads was one of the most important phenomena of the Industrial Revolution. The Transcontinental Railroad greatly boosted America’s economy and contributed to the westward expansion. What was the purpose of the first transcontinental railroad? Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Now, we have hundreds of thousands of miles of rail connecting major cities across the country, but this was not the case two hundred years ago. What had changed by summer 1862 was the conviction that a transcontinental railroad was needed sooner rather than later. It took land away from Native Americans and many were killed in the early stages. What are the names of Santa's 12 reindeers? The Transcontinental Railroad. Transforms West - railroad turns open places into "boomtowns" - places people now live 2. As Ronda explains, it changed the way that people viewed distances. The Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869, had dramatic economic, cultural, and political significance to the development of the United States. The 1850s were a time of westward expansion for the United States. Other entrepreneurs and industries would follow the Big Four’s lead in tapping government help to build their businesses. 1. Allows Civil War veterans, poor farmers, and peasants from Europe to have a farm they could call their own - wheat where there was once only grass 3. The transcontinental railroad was built in the 1800s to connect Council Bluffs, Iowa… How many jobs did the transcontinental railroad created. Towns and cities that sprung up along the railroad further encroached upon what had been wild areas. From the beginning, then, the building of the transcontinental railroad was set up in terms of a competition between the two companies. “The Constitution provided the legal framework for a single national market for trade goods; the transcontinental railroad provided the physical framework,” explains Henry W. Brands, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West. The railroad'sability to connect both coasts with a relatively quick form of transportation opened markets for … The term "Transcontinental" means going across a continent and the transcontinental railroad enabled a journey on the transcontinental railroad from the Eastern part of the United States all the way to the Western part of the United States. In 1870, the newly created nation of Canadaacquired Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company, an enormous tract of land stretching north and west; one yearlater, British Columbia entered Confederationbased in part on the promise that a transcontinental railwaywould connect it to the rest of Canada within 10 years (see Railway History). The transcontinental railroad had a major effect on how Americans perceived their nation, and it became a symbol of America's growing industrial power and a source of confidence that led them to take on even more ambitious quests. During the railroad’s construction, numerous temporary “hell on wheels” towns of tents and wooden shacks sprung up along the route to provide living quarters for workers. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads officially connected in Promontory Point, Utah on May 10, 1869. “In the West, where the distances are so great, the railroad brought near and far closer together.” The railroad schedules also helped to push the United States into changing how it marked time, leading to the adoption of standard time zones in 1883. The simple presence of railroads could bring a city economic prosperity. By one estimate, the project cost roughly $60 million, about $1.2 billion in today’s money, though other sources put the amount even higher. Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 into law on July 1. The transcontinental railroad's construction touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The completion of the transcontinental railroad led to heightened racial tensions in California, as white workers from the East Coast and Europe could more easily travel westward where immigrant laborers were prevalent, says Princeton University Assistant Professor of History Beth Lew-Williams, author of The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America. That made it possible for Americans to visit distant locales that previously they might only have heard about. Click to see full answer. The route from West to East carved out by the Central Pacific required … Transcontinental Railroad Essay Sample. Here are some of the ways that the first transcontinental railroad—and the many other transcontinental lines that followed it—changed America. Phil Sexton talked about Sacramento's role in the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and visited the California State Railroad Museum.
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