AMERICA'S FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD 1863-1869
THE FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
The First Transcontinental Railroad, built by American railroad workers, would, in its entirety, stretch from the East Coast of the United States to the Pacific Ocean on the West Coast. Construction of the most challenging section of that railroad began in 1863, right in the middle of the most deadly war ever waged by Americans; against themselves. The railroad would run from Omaha, Nebraska just across the Missouri River, to Sacramento, California. Only later would the final section extending to the Pacific be added. Workers would dig "cuts", lay track, build bridges, run telegraph wire, and dig tunnels out of solid granite mountains across more than 1,700 miles of treeless prairie, the majestic Rocky Mountains, and over, as well as through, the frigid and deadly Sierra Nevada Mountains.
After its completion pioneers would no longer be forced to crawl across the Nation in long wagon trains that took 5-6 months of dangerous travel across nearly two thousand miles of western America to reach the State of California; as well as the agricultural paradise known as "Oregon Country".
Settlers could travel faster, cheaper, and much safer, by train. In addition to transporting people, things like mail, supplies, agricultural crops, and trade goods could now be shipped across the country in just a few days as opposed to 5-6 months, The railroad work was begun in 1863 while the terrible Civil war Battle of Gettysburg was being waged in Pennsylvania. it reached its completion in 1869 as the victorious Union General U. S. Grant was becoming the 18th President of the United States.
Background
The first talk of building a transcontinental railroad started sometime around 1830. One of the first promoters of the railroad was a merchant named Asa Whitney who tried hard for many years to get Congress to pass an act to build the railroad, but failed. However, in the 1860s, a gifted engineer named Theodore Judah also began to lobby everyone willing to listen for a railroad to cross the vast expanses of the western United States. He eventually surveyed the treacherous Sierra Nevada Mountains and found a pass through the mountains where the railroad could be built.
The Route
There were two main routes along which people wanted the first railroad to be built. One route was called the "central route". It followed much the same route as the Oregon Trail. It would begin in Omaha, Nebraska and end up in Sacramento, California. The other route was known as the "southern route". This route would stretch across Texas, New Mexico, and end up in Los Angeles, California. The central route was eventually chosen by Congress. Work would begin from opposite ends of the continent while Americans were fully enveloped in the Civil War.
The First Transcontinental Railroad, built by American railroad workers, would, in its entirety, stretch from the East Coast of the United States to the Pacific Ocean on the West Coast. Construction of the most challenging section of that railroad began in 1863, right in the middle of the most deadly war ever waged by Americans; against themselves. The railroad would run from Omaha, Nebraska just across the Missouri River, to Sacramento, California. Only later would the final section extending to the Pacific be added. Workers would dig "cuts", lay track, build bridges, run telegraph wire, and dig tunnels out of solid granite mountains across more than 1,700 miles of treeless prairie, the majestic Rocky Mountains, and over, as well as through, the frigid and deadly Sierra Nevada Mountains.
After its completion pioneers would no longer be forced to crawl across the Nation in long wagon trains that took 5-6 months of dangerous travel across nearly two thousand miles of western America to reach the State of California; as well as the agricultural paradise known as "Oregon Country".
Settlers could travel faster, cheaper, and much safer, by train. In addition to transporting people, things like mail, supplies, agricultural crops, and trade goods could now be shipped across the country in just a few days as opposed to 5-6 months, The railroad work was begun in 1863 while the terrible Civil war Battle of Gettysburg was being waged in Pennsylvania. it reached its completion in 1869 as the victorious Union General U. S. Grant was becoming the 18th President of the United States.
Background
The first talk of building a transcontinental railroad started sometime around 1830. One of the first promoters of the railroad was a merchant named Asa Whitney who tried hard for many years to get Congress to pass an act to build the railroad, but failed. However, in the 1860s, a gifted engineer named Theodore Judah also began to lobby everyone willing to listen for a railroad to cross the vast expanses of the western United States. He eventually surveyed the treacherous Sierra Nevada Mountains and found a pass through the mountains where the railroad could be built.
The Route
There were two main routes along which people wanted the first railroad to be built. One route was called the "central route". It followed much the same route as the Oregon Trail. It would begin in Omaha, Nebraska and end up in Sacramento, California. The other route was known as the "southern route". This route would stretch across Texas, New Mexico, and end up in Los Angeles, California. The central route was eventually chosen by Congress. Work would begin from opposite ends of the continent while Americans were fully enveloped in the Civil War.
BELOW IS A MAP SHOWING RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT IN AND BETWEEN THE STATES EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER BY THE TIME OF THE CIVIL WAR IN THE 1860s. NOTICE THAT NOT A SINGLE MILE OF TRACK EXTENDED BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
THE ROUTE OF THE "FIRST TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD"
UNIT 2
"THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD"
FOR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF INDIVIDUAL TRAVELERS OR AMERICAN PIONEER FAMILIES, BEFORE 1869, THERE WERE ONLY A COUPLE WAYS TO GET ACROSS THE VAST EXPANSES OF OUR COUNTRY:
MANY THOUSANDS MADE THE FIVE TO SIX MONTH TRIP IN THE FAMOUS "PRAIRIE SCHOONERS".
ALTHOUGH MANY FOOLISHLY STARTED THE TRIP WITH BEAUTIFUL HORSES, ALL EVENTUALLY TURNED TO THE RELIABLE OXEN. THE BEST ALTERNATIVE WAS TO TURN BACK...OR DIE.
OTHERS WHO COULD AFFORD THE COST TOOK ALTERNATE PASSAGE IN A BONE JARRING STAGE COACH
ALTHOUGH MANY FOOLISHLY STARTED THE TRIP WITH BEAUTIFUL HORSES, ALL EVENTUALLY TURNED TO THE RELIABLE OXEN. THE BEST ALTERNATIVE WAS TO TURN BACK...OR DIE.
OTHERS WHO COULD AFFORD THE COST TOOK ALTERNATE PASSAGE IN A BONE JARRING STAGE COACH
STILL OTHERS MADE THE TRIP IN THE MORE TRADITIONAL, YET LONELY FASHION, ON HORSEBACK
THE THREE READINGS OF UNIT 2
YOU WILL BE EXPECTED TO READ, REGARDLESS OF ABSENCE, 3 PARTS OF A STORY ABOUT THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD; BEFORE ITS CONSTRUCTION, DURING ITS CONSTRUCTION, AND THE AFTERMATH ITS CONSTRUCTION HAD ON THE NATIVE PEOPLES OF THE PLAINS REGION.
BEFORE EACH READING YOU WILL SQ3R THE SECTION HEADINGS AND CHOOSE 4 SECTION HEADINGS YOU WISH TO REWRITE INTO FOUR DIFFERENT QUESTIONS.
ONLY AFTER READING THE ENTIRE PACKET, YOU WILL GO BACK TO THOSE QUESTIONS YOU WROTE AND ANSWER THEM IN A MUCH EXPANDED AND FACT FILLED MANNER.
THE "BELL RINGER"
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT DAYS CLASS YOU WILL REVIEW YOUR 4 QUESTION/ANSWER COMBINATIONS FROM THE READING ASSIGNMENT OF THE PREVIOUS DAY. YOU WILL SELECT THE MOST INTERESTING OF THE WRITTEN RESPONSES, AND IT WILL BECOME YOUR "BEGINNING OF THE CLASS BELL RINGER". BEING ABSENT FROM CLASS FOR ANY REASON DOES NOT EXCUSE YOU FROM COMPLETING THIS AS WELL AS ANY OTHER CLASS WORK.
YOU WILL REPHRASE AND RESTATE YESTERDAYS QUESTION INTO A MUCH MORE INFORMATIVE & INTERESTING 2 SENTENCE INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC. SKIP A SPACE AND THEN COMPOSE A MUCH BROADER, LONGER, MORE IN-DEPTH WRITTEN EXPLANATION THAN THE ANSWER YOU PROVIDED YESTERDAY WRITING A MINIMUM OF THREE FACT FILLED AND INFORMATIVE SENTENCES.
THIS "BELL RINGER SHOULD BE LOOKED AT AND WRITTEN AS IF IT IS A FORMAL ESSAY. THE SENTENCES MUST BE COMPLETE SENTENCES WHERE YOU GO INTO BROAD DETAIL EXPLAINING & DISCUSSING YOUR TOPIC.
YOU WILL BE GIVEN FROM 10-15 MINUTES TO WRITE THIS "MINI-ESSAY" SO HAVE IDEAS AS TO WHAT YOU WILL WRITE BEFORE THE CLOCK STARTS TICKING DOWN YOUR 10-15 MINUTES. WHATEVER IS LEFT UNFINISHED OR INCOMPLETE WILL REDUCE YOUR GRADE ON THE ACTIVITY.
YOU WILL REPHRASE AND RESTATE YESTERDAYS QUESTION INTO A MUCH MORE INFORMATIVE & INTERESTING 2 SENTENCE INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC. SKIP A SPACE AND THEN COMPOSE A MUCH BROADER, LONGER, MORE IN-DEPTH WRITTEN EXPLANATION THAN THE ANSWER YOU PROVIDED YESTERDAY WRITING A MINIMUM OF THREE FACT FILLED AND INFORMATIVE SENTENCES.
THIS "BELL RINGER SHOULD BE LOOKED AT AND WRITTEN AS IF IT IS A FORMAL ESSAY. THE SENTENCES MUST BE COMPLETE SENTENCES WHERE YOU GO INTO BROAD DETAIL EXPLAINING & DISCUSSING YOUR TOPIC.
YOU WILL BE GIVEN FROM 10-15 MINUTES TO WRITE THIS "MINI-ESSAY" SO HAVE IDEAS AS TO WHAT YOU WILL WRITE BEFORE THE CLOCK STARTS TICKING DOWN YOUR 10-15 MINUTES. WHATEVER IS LEFT UNFINISHED OR INCOMPLETE WILL REDUCE YOUR GRADE ON THE ACTIVITY.
READING # 1 OF "THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD"
READING # 1
MAKE YOUR SQ3R TOPIC:
"TIME FOR A GREAT IDEA"
A FANTASTIC ACHIEVEMENT
In contemplating the great engineering achievements undertaken by Americans since the beginning of our country in 1783, the development of the atomic bomb, the digging of the Panama Canal, and landing the first men on the moon have all been fantastic achievements which seemed all but impossible until they were completed.
Arguably the most impressive engineering achievement of the 19th century had to be the construction of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" (railroad service from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean). The finished project completed in 1869, stands beside the other American endeavors as one of the greatest technological achievements in the history of the United States of America.
A LONG AND EXPENSIVE TRIP
Railroad track had to be laid over, under, and through 1,756 miles of rugged terrain, including mountains of solid granite, rivers, and a thousand miles of treeless Plains. Trouble with Native American Tribes, who opposed the invasion of their ancestral lands by work crews, as well as mayhem caused by outlaws was an ordinary occurrence. Dangerous and freezing temperatures in winter, along with the searing heat and humidity of summer, caused many men to lose their lives.
Before the transcontinental railroad was completed, travel overland by stagecoach would cost a rider $1,000.This was a cost that was out of reach for most Americans of the day. The trip could take as long as five to six months. It involved crossing a variety of terrains and climates that ranged from rugged mountains and arid deserts, to endless miles of treeless Plains. The only other alternatives of the day were to travel by sea around the tip of South America. This involved a fantastic distance of 18,000 miles. Some sea travelers opted to escape the 18,000 mile Atlantic sea voyage by crossing the narrow nation of Panama, thus taking dangerous chances with the many tropical fevers present in that part of the world. They would then travel north by ship through the Pacific waters to California; Again, still a long, often times dangerous, and quite expensive trip.
The great majority of travelers during the mid 1800s could not afford such time or expense. A Transcontinental Railroad would make it possible to complete the same trip, which had taken nearly 6 months since the first pioneers set out in Conestoga wagons during the 1840s, in five days. All at an unbelievable cost of about $150 for a first-class sleeper bunk.
AN IDEA BEGAN TO FORM
Interest in building a railroad that would link the two halves of the continent began soon after the invention of the locomotive. The first trains began to run in America in the 1830s between major cities along the East Coast. By the 1840s the nation's railway networks extended throughout the East, into the States of the South, as well as the Midwest ending at the Mississippi River.
The idea of building a railroad across the nation to the Pacific Ocean gained momentum. America taking the California territory from Mexico after the Mexican-American War of 1848, the discovery of gold in California in 1849, and California gaining statehood in 1850 further spurred the interest of investors to unite the two halves of the country. This was also good news for the thousands of immigrants and miners who sought their fortunes in the West and would be able to avoid 6 months of dangerous and difficult travel overland with wagons and oxen.
During the 1850s, Congress sponsored many survey parties to investigate possible routes for a transcontinental railroad. No particular route became a clear favorite as political groups were split over whether the route should be a northern or southern one. Theodore Judah, a civil engineer who helped build the first railroad in California, wanted the route to run along the 41st parallel. This would mean running through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. He was so obsessed with the idea of a transcontinental railroad that he became known as "Crazy Judah."
JUDAH'S PLAN WAS DANGEROUS
Although Judah's plan had merit, those that did not support the route he had chosen pointed out the dangerous obstacles along his proposed route. The most serious of these obstacles would be the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Work crews would be faced with the awesome task of laying track through these mountains. Workers would not only have to survive the bitter environment, but perform complex construction tasks on a daily basis. The Sierra Nevada Range was known for its' bitter cold winters with temperatures regularly falling far below zero. Laying rail, building bridges across deep ravines, and tunneling through Granite Mountains in the midst of killer blizzards would be the ultimate challenge if this route were to be successful. Workers would eventually have to advance across 690 miles of some of the roughest terrain on the North American continent. A rail line built along this route would require engineering feats yet to be attempted in the United States.
1) Discuss reasons why people were convinced that building a Railroad across America during the 1860s was a great idea.
2) What events occurred in the 1840s that caused Americans to need a cheaper & quicker way to get across the country to California?
3) Discuss the biggest problems Theodore Judah’s route for the Central Pacific Railroad posed.
In contemplating the great engineering achievements undertaken by Americans since the beginning of our country in 1783, the development of the atomic bomb, the digging of the Panama Canal, and landing the first men on the moon have all been fantastic achievements which seemed all but impossible until they were completed.
Arguably the most impressive engineering achievement of the 19th century had to be the construction of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" (railroad service from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean). The finished project completed in 1869, stands beside the other American endeavors as one of the greatest technological achievements in the history of the United States of America.
A LONG AND EXPENSIVE TRIP
Railroad track had to be laid over, under, and through 1,756 miles of rugged terrain, including mountains of solid granite, rivers, and a thousand miles of treeless Plains. Trouble with Native American Tribes, who opposed the invasion of their ancestral lands by work crews, as well as mayhem caused by outlaws was an ordinary occurrence. Dangerous and freezing temperatures in winter, along with the searing heat and humidity of summer, caused many men to lose their lives.
Before the transcontinental railroad was completed, travel overland by stagecoach would cost a rider $1,000.This was a cost that was out of reach for most Americans of the day. The trip could take as long as five to six months. It involved crossing a variety of terrains and climates that ranged from rugged mountains and arid deserts, to endless miles of treeless Plains. The only other alternatives of the day were to travel by sea around the tip of South America. This involved a fantastic distance of 18,000 miles. Some sea travelers opted to escape the 18,000 mile Atlantic sea voyage by crossing the narrow nation of Panama, thus taking dangerous chances with the many tropical fevers present in that part of the world. They would then travel north by ship through the Pacific waters to California; Again, still a long, often times dangerous, and quite expensive trip.
The great majority of travelers during the mid 1800s could not afford such time or expense. A Transcontinental Railroad would make it possible to complete the same trip, which had taken nearly 6 months since the first pioneers set out in Conestoga wagons during the 1840s, in five days. All at an unbelievable cost of about $150 for a first-class sleeper bunk.
AN IDEA BEGAN TO FORM
Interest in building a railroad that would link the two halves of the continent began soon after the invention of the locomotive. The first trains began to run in America in the 1830s between major cities along the East Coast. By the 1840s the nation's railway networks extended throughout the East, into the States of the South, as well as the Midwest ending at the Mississippi River.
The idea of building a railroad across the nation to the Pacific Ocean gained momentum. America taking the California territory from Mexico after the Mexican-American War of 1848, the discovery of gold in California in 1849, and California gaining statehood in 1850 further spurred the interest of investors to unite the two halves of the country. This was also good news for the thousands of immigrants and miners who sought their fortunes in the West and would be able to avoid 6 months of dangerous and difficult travel overland with wagons and oxen.
During the 1850s, Congress sponsored many survey parties to investigate possible routes for a transcontinental railroad. No particular route became a clear favorite as political groups were split over whether the route should be a northern or southern one. Theodore Judah, a civil engineer who helped build the first railroad in California, wanted the route to run along the 41st parallel. This would mean running through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. He was so obsessed with the idea of a transcontinental railroad that he became known as "Crazy Judah."
JUDAH'S PLAN WAS DANGEROUS
Although Judah's plan had merit, those that did not support the route he had chosen pointed out the dangerous obstacles along his proposed route. The most serious of these obstacles would be the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Work crews would be faced with the awesome task of laying track through these mountains. Workers would not only have to survive the bitter environment, but perform complex construction tasks on a daily basis. The Sierra Nevada Range was known for its' bitter cold winters with temperatures regularly falling far below zero. Laying rail, building bridges across deep ravines, and tunneling through Granite Mountains in the midst of killer blizzards would be the ultimate challenge if this route were to be successful. Workers would eventually have to advance across 690 miles of some of the roughest terrain on the North American continent. A rail line built along this route would require engineering feats yet to be attempted in the United States.
1) Discuss reasons why people were convinced that building a Railroad across America during the 1860s was a great idea.
2) What events occurred in the 1840s that caused Americans to need a cheaper & quicker way to get across the country to California?
3) Discuss the biggest problems Theodore Judah’s route for the Central Pacific Railroad posed.
READING # 2 OF "THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD"
MAKE YOUR SQ3R TOPIC:
"CONSTRUCTION FINALLY BEGINS"
THE "BIG FOUR"
In 1859, Judah received a letter from Daniel Strong, a storekeeper in Dutch Flat, California, offering to show Judah the best route along the old emigrant road through the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Donner Pass. The route had a gradual rise and required the railroad tracks to cross the summit of only one mountain rather than two. Judah agreed and they drew up letters of incorporation for the Central Pacific Railroad Company.
They began the difficult search for investors. Judah was able to convince four rich Sacramento businessmen that a railroad would bring trade& business to the California area. The men deciding to financially back Judah included Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, and the soon to be governor of California, Leland Stanford. These investors would later come to be known as the "Big Four." They were already rich and powerful men individually but together they presented a formidable force to getting this railroad project off the ground.
TWO COMPANIES ARE CREATED
Huntington and his partners paid Judah to survey the route. Judah used maps from his survey to help him make a bold presentation to the Congress in Washington D.C. in October 1861. Many Congressmen were leery of beginning such an expensive venture, especially with the Civil War underway. President Abraham Lincoln, a long time supporter of railroads, agreed with Judah. On July 1, 1862, Lincoln signed the “Pacific Railway Act”, authorizing land grants and government bonds, which amounted to $32,000 in payments per mile of track laid by each of the two companies involved in the great venture. So this project would be built by private companies who would be rewarded by the U.S. Government with money and land on both sides of the track for each mile of track successfully laid across the more than 1,700 miles that would need to be crossed.
The Central Pacific Railroad Company would begin construction from the west at Sacramento, California. It would begin laying track over the Sierra Nevada Mountains working eastward. The Union Pacific Railroad Company would begin laying track at Council Bluffs, Iowa. They would work westward across the Great Plains. It was at that time undetermined exactly where the two companies would meet to complete the First Transcontinental Railroad.
Unfortunately Theodore Judah would not live to see the project begin. He contracted yellow fever during a trip to Panama and died on November 2, 1863. The Big Four investors replaced him with Samuel Montague and the Central Pacific construction crews began building the line east from Sacramento.
At the eastern end of the project, Grenville Dodge and his assistant Peter Dey, surveyed the potential route the Union Pacific Railroad would follow. They recommended that the rail line should follow the Platt River along its' Northern Branch through Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. It should cross the Continental Divide at South Pass in Wyoming and continue along to the Green River at Washington Territory. President Lincoln favored this route and made the decision that the eastern starting point of the Transcontinental Railroad would be Council Bluffs, Iowa, located directly across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska.
"DOC DURANT" BREAKS THE LAW
Thomas C. Durant, a medical doctor turned businessman, gained control of the Union Pacific Railroad Company by buying over $2 million in shares and installing his own man as president. "Doc" Durant created a false business to be the principal construction company to build Union Pacific stretch of the Transcontinental Railroad. The business was called Crédit Moblier and was owned by Union Pacific investors. Over the next few years, the fake company swindled the government out of tens of millions of dollars by charging overly high fees for the work that was done.
Because the government paid the Railroad Company by every mile of track they were able to build, Durant also insisted the original route be unnecessarily lengthened. In other words Durant, in full knowledge that $32,000 was being paid to his company for every mile of track that was laid by his crews, wanted the route of the Union Pacific Railroad to be anything but a straight line. He wanted the Surveyors to plot a route that would twist and turn wherever possible adding miles of track that would further line his pockets with government payments.
This was highly unethical as well as being an illegal and corrupt act. Soon after the completion of the railroad, Durant's dirty business dealings became a public scandal with Congress investigating not only Durant, but also fellow Senators and Representatives who had benefited from his shady dealings.
The Central Pacific's Big Four investors formed their corporation with a similar arrangement. They awarded the construction and supplies contract to one of their own partners, Charles Crocker, who resigned from the railroad's board. However, the Big Four owned an interest in Crocker's company and each of them profited from the contract.
THOUSANDS OF WORKERS NEEDED
The race between the two companies began when the Union Pacific finally began to lay tracks at Omaha, Nebraska, in July 1865. Durant hired Grenville Dodge as chief engineer and General Jack Casement as construction boss. With tens of thousands of Civil War veterans out of work, hiring men to work for the Union Pacific was easy. Many Irishmen recruited from the slums of New York City were the first hires. Few had experience but did have strong backs and badly needed steady work.
Many recent veterans of the Union Army as well as soldiers from the Confederate armies were also badly in need of work. These former soldiers were men who were used to regimentation, organization, and following orders. Having been soldiers, many of the men seeking work from the Union Pacific Railroad Company had gained very special skills learned through the hard years of the recently ended war.
Many were men who had actually worked for railroad companies during the war and were already knowledgeable and skilled enough without any training to be put into supervisory positions right away. Others were used to hard work, using tools, and being part of a work gang from years of activity as soldiers. These men were the best possible working force to attempt a massive construction project of this magnitude.
1) Why were the “Big Four” so willing to risk millions investing in the construction of the central Pacific Railroad?
2) What did President Lincoln do to encourage investors from the two Railroad Companies to build the Transcontinental Railroad to the Pacific Ocean?
3) What did Doc Durant do to insure his Union Pacific Company would be paid far more than it was rightfully owed by the government?
4) Why was the Union Pacific able to hire such good workers for their part of the project?
In 1859, Judah received a letter from Daniel Strong, a storekeeper in Dutch Flat, California, offering to show Judah the best route along the old emigrant road through the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Donner Pass. The route had a gradual rise and required the railroad tracks to cross the summit of only one mountain rather than two. Judah agreed and they drew up letters of incorporation for the Central Pacific Railroad Company.
They began the difficult search for investors. Judah was able to convince four rich Sacramento businessmen that a railroad would bring trade& business to the California area. The men deciding to financially back Judah included Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, and the soon to be governor of California, Leland Stanford. These investors would later come to be known as the "Big Four." They were already rich and powerful men individually but together they presented a formidable force to getting this railroad project off the ground.
TWO COMPANIES ARE CREATED
Huntington and his partners paid Judah to survey the route. Judah used maps from his survey to help him make a bold presentation to the Congress in Washington D.C. in October 1861. Many Congressmen were leery of beginning such an expensive venture, especially with the Civil War underway. President Abraham Lincoln, a long time supporter of railroads, agreed with Judah. On July 1, 1862, Lincoln signed the “Pacific Railway Act”, authorizing land grants and government bonds, which amounted to $32,000 in payments per mile of track laid by each of the two companies involved in the great venture. So this project would be built by private companies who would be rewarded by the U.S. Government with money and land on both sides of the track for each mile of track successfully laid across the more than 1,700 miles that would need to be crossed.
The Central Pacific Railroad Company would begin construction from the west at Sacramento, California. It would begin laying track over the Sierra Nevada Mountains working eastward. The Union Pacific Railroad Company would begin laying track at Council Bluffs, Iowa. They would work westward across the Great Plains. It was at that time undetermined exactly where the two companies would meet to complete the First Transcontinental Railroad.
Unfortunately Theodore Judah would not live to see the project begin. He contracted yellow fever during a trip to Panama and died on November 2, 1863. The Big Four investors replaced him with Samuel Montague and the Central Pacific construction crews began building the line east from Sacramento.
At the eastern end of the project, Grenville Dodge and his assistant Peter Dey, surveyed the potential route the Union Pacific Railroad would follow. They recommended that the rail line should follow the Platt River along its' Northern Branch through Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. It should cross the Continental Divide at South Pass in Wyoming and continue along to the Green River at Washington Territory. President Lincoln favored this route and made the decision that the eastern starting point of the Transcontinental Railroad would be Council Bluffs, Iowa, located directly across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska.
"DOC DURANT" BREAKS THE LAW
Thomas C. Durant, a medical doctor turned businessman, gained control of the Union Pacific Railroad Company by buying over $2 million in shares and installing his own man as president. "Doc" Durant created a false business to be the principal construction company to build Union Pacific stretch of the Transcontinental Railroad. The business was called Crédit Moblier and was owned by Union Pacific investors. Over the next few years, the fake company swindled the government out of tens of millions of dollars by charging overly high fees for the work that was done.
Because the government paid the Railroad Company by every mile of track they were able to build, Durant also insisted the original route be unnecessarily lengthened. In other words Durant, in full knowledge that $32,000 was being paid to his company for every mile of track that was laid by his crews, wanted the route of the Union Pacific Railroad to be anything but a straight line. He wanted the Surveyors to plot a route that would twist and turn wherever possible adding miles of track that would further line his pockets with government payments.
This was highly unethical as well as being an illegal and corrupt act. Soon after the completion of the railroad, Durant's dirty business dealings became a public scandal with Congress investigating not only Durant, but also fellow Senators and Representatives who had benefited from his shady dealings.
The Central Pacific's Big Four investors formed their corporation with a similar arrangement. They awarded the construction and supplies contract to one of their own partners, Charles Crocker, who resigned from the railroad's board. However, the Big Four owned an interest in Crocker's company and each of them profited from the contract.
THOUSANDS OF WORKERS NEEDED
The race between the two companies began when the Union Pacific finally began to lay tracks at Omaha, Nebraska, in July 1865. Durant hired Grenville Dodge as chief engineer and General Jack Casement as construction boss. With tens of thousands of Civil War veterans out of work, hiring men to work for the Union Pacific was easy. Many Irishmen recruited from the slums of New York City were the first hires. Few had experience but did have strong backs and badly needed steady work.
Many recent veterans of the Union Army as well as soldiers from the Confederate armies were also badly in need of work. These former soldiers were men who were used to regimentation, organization, and following orders. Having been soldiers, many of the men seeking work from the Union Pacific Railroad Company had gained very special skills learned through the hard years of the recently ended war.
Many were men who had actually worked for railroad companies during the war and were already knowledgeable and skilled enough without any training to be put into supervisory positions right away. Others were used to hard work, using tools, and being part of a work gang from years of activity as soldiers. These men were the best possible working force to attempt a massive construction project of this magnitude.
1) Why were the “Big Four” so willing to risk millions investing in the construction of the central Pacific Railroad?
2) What did President Lincoln do to encourage investors from the two Railroad Companies to build the Transcontinental Railroad to the Pacific Ocean?
3) What did Doc Durant do to insure his Union Pacific Company would be paid far more than it was rightfully owed by the government?
4) Why was the Union Pacific able to hire such good workers for their part of the project?
READING # 3 OF "THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD"
MAKE YOUR SQ3R TOPIC:
"THE CHINESE AND THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD"
The successful design of bridges, trestles, and tunnels along the transcontinental route was critical for the railroad to function. Construction crews built these structures as they worked ahead of the track-layers. They crossed rivers, canyons, through mountains, and over dry gullies that would wash with water during rain and spring snowmelt. Engineers for both railroads faced dangers and endured environmental extremes on a scale that no railroad builder had yet faced.
CHINESE WORKERS, KNOWN TO THE WHITE WORKERS AS "COOLIES", PERFORMED THE MOST SPECTACULAR AND DANGEROUS FEATS WHILE PLANTING EXPLOSIVES TO CUT THROUGH GRANITE TO BUILD TUNNELS, TRESTLES, AND BRIDGES.
TUNNELS BLASTED THROUGH MOUNTAINS HAD TO BE STRUCTURALLY FRAMED WITH TIMBERS AND REINFORCED TO GUARD AGAINST CAVE COLLAPSE. THIS WORK WAS COMPLETED BY CREWS WORKING AHEAD OF THOSE LAYING THE TRACK.
CROCKER COULDN'T FIND WORKERS
Finding workers to build the Central Pacific Railroad was a very challenging task for Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific. Laborers, mainly Irish immigrants, were hired from the slums of New York and Boston. They were shipped out west at great expense to the owners of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. Many of the costly hired workers would however abandon the backbreaking railroad work quickly. They were lured by the potential riches to be made in the Nevada silver mines.
In desperation, Crocker tried to hire newly freed African Americans. He also hired immigrant workers from Mexico. Finally he was unsuccessful when he requested Congress send 5,000 Confederate Civil War prisoners west to work as the laborers he so desperately needed.
Frustrated at the lack of manpower necessary to support the railroad, Crocker finally suggested to his work boss, James Strobridge, that they hire Chinese laborers. Strobridge was initially against the idea. He felt that the Chinese were too small physically to be able to do the demanding job. He agreed to hire 50 Chinese workers on a trial basis. After only one month on the job, Strobridge admitted that the Chinese were reliable and clear headed laborers. They were free from dependence on liquor, and would be the dependable and hard workers the Central Pacific needed.
THE CHINESE ARE THE ANSWER
Within three years, 80 percent of the Central Pacific workforce was made up of Chinese workers. They would prove to be essential to the task of laying the line through the Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. The Chinese workers accomplished amazing and dangerous feats no other workers would or could do. They blasted tunnels through the solid granite, sometimes progressing only a foot a day. They often lived in the tunnels as they worked their way through the solid granite, saving precious time and energy from entering and exiting the work site each day. They were routinely lowered down sheer cliff faces in makeshift baskets on ropes where they drilled holes, filled them with explosives, lit the fuse and then were yanked up as fast as possible to avoid the blast. They were given the most strenuous as well as the most dangerous work and were paid less than the other ethnic groups that worked on either the "Union Pacific Railroad" or the "Central Pacific Railroad". Today we can hardly attribute this to anything other than the racism of the time that prevailed between Whites and non-Whites that was still very much a factor in the lives of non-White groups of that era.
DANGERS AND OBSTACLES
Every mile of track laid was paid for in misery and blood. While the Central Pacific Company fought punishing conditions moving eastward through mountains, crossing dangerous ravines, and working through killing blizzards, the Union Pacific Company faced raids from Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors who were seeing their homelands invaded and changed forever.
The railroad workers were armed and frequently protected by U.S. Calvary troopers and friendly Pawnee Indians. The non-rail crew workers however routinely faced Native American raiding parties that attacked surveyors and workers, stole livestock and equipment, and pulled up track and derailed locomotives.
Both railroad companies battled against their respective obstacles to lay the most miles of track, therefore gaining the most land and money. Although the Central Pacific had a two-year head start over the Union Pacific, the rough terrain of the Sierra Nevada Mountains limited their construction to only 100 miles by the end of 1867. But once they were through the Sierras, the Central Pacific rail lines moved at tremendous speed. They were able to cross Nevada and reach the Utah border in 1868. From the east, the Union Pacific completed its line through Wyoming and was moving at an equal tempo from the east.
No end point had been set for the two rail lines when President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act in 1862, but a decision had to be made soon. By early 1869, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific were closing in on each other across northern Utah, aided by a Mormon workforce under contract to both companies. But neither side was interested in halting construction, as each company wanted to claim the $32,000 per mile government payment. Indeed, at one point the graders from both companies, working ahead of track layers, actually passed one another as they were unwilling to concede territory to their competitors.
THE WEST WILL NEVER BE THE SAME
On April 9, 1869, Congress established the meeting point in an area known as Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. Less than one month later, on May 10, 1869, locomotives from the two railroads met nose-to-nose to signal the joining of the two lines. At 12:57 p.m. local time, as railroad dignitaries hammered in ceremonial golden spikes, telegraphers announced the completion of the Pacific Railway. Canons boomed in San Francisco and Washington. Bells rang and fire whistles shrieked as people celebrated across the country. The nation was indeed united. Manifest Destiny was a reality. The six-month trip to California had been reduced to two weeks. And within only a few years, the transcontinental railroad turned the frontier wilderness of the western territories into regions populated by European-Americans, enabling business and commerce to proliferate and effectively ending the traditional Native American way of life. Now people who needed to cross the Plains and Mountains that had been taking settlers in their Prairie Schooner wagons between 5 and 6 months to make the trip, could now buy a ticket on the train and complete the trip in 5-6 days.
Crops and manufactured goods as well as livestock could be shipped back East to the busy markets in St. Louis and Chicago, as well as further East to the busiest markets in the Nation: those big cities located along the Atlantic Seaboard with their ever larger and growing populations of workers in factories, railroads, on the docks, construction, mines, and all the other millions of people working for wages with money to buy products. The West was now looked at as a production area of the nation needing settlers, farmers, and workers of all kinds. Now that money could be made from activities in the west, greater numbers of people would be headed to those regions to take advantage of the economic opportunities.
1) What national group made up the greatest part of the workforce for the Central Pacific Railroad?
2) Discuss some reasons these workers were found to be so valuable.
3) Even with a 2 year head start, why was the Central Pacific behind schedule by 1867?
4) Where did the two railroad companies eventually meet thus completing the 1st Transcontinental Railroad?
Finding workers to build the Central Pacific Railroad was a very challenging task for Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific. Laborers, mainly Irish immigrants, were hired from the slums of New York and Boston. They were shipped out west at great expense to the owners of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. Many of the costly hired workers would however abandon the backbreaking railroad work quickly. They were lured by the potential riches to be made in the Nevada silver mines.
In desperation, Crocker tried to hire newly freed African Americans. He also hired immigrant workers from Mexico. Finally he was unsuccessful when he requested Congress send 5,000 Confederate Civil War prisoners west to work as the laborers he so desperately needed.
Frustrated at the lack of manpower necessary to support the railroad, Crocker finally suggested to his work boss, James Strobridge, that they hire Chinese laborers. Strobridge was initially against the idea. He felt that the Chinese were too small physically to be able to do the demanding job. He agreed to hire 50 Chinese workers on a trial basis. After only one month on the job, Strobridge admitted that the Chinese were reliable and clear headed laborers. They were free from dependence on liquor, and would be the dependable and hard workers the Central Pacific needed.
THE CHINESE ARE THE ANSWER
Within three years, 80 percent of the Central Pacific workforce was made up of Chinese workers. They would prove to be essential to the task of laying the line through the Sierra Nevada Mountain’s. The Chinese workers accomplished amazing and dangerous feats no other workers would or could do. They blasted tunnels through the solid granite, sometimes progressing only a foot a day. They often lived in the tunnels as they worked their way through the solid granite, saving precious time and energy from entering and exiting the work site each day. They were routinely lowered down sheer cliff faces in makeshift baskets on ropes where they drilled holes, filled them with explosives, lit the fuse and then were yanked up as fast as possible to avoid the blast. They were given the most strenuous as well as the most dangerous work and were paid less than the other ethnic groups that worked on either the "Union Pacific Railroad" or the "Central Pacific Railroad". Today we can hardly attribute this to anything other than the racism of the time that prevailed between Whites and non-Whites that was still very much a factor in the lives of non-White groups of that era.
DANGERS AND OBSTACLES
Every mile of track laid was paid for in misery and blood. While the Central Pacific Company fought punishing conditions moving eastward through mountains, crossing dangerous ravines, and working through killing blizzards, the Union Pacific Company faced raids from Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors who were seeing their homelands invaded and changed forever.
The railroad workers were armed and frequently protected by U.S. Calvary troopers and friendly Pawnee Indians. The non-rail crew workers however routinely faced Native American raiding parties that attacked surveyors and workers, stole livestock and equipment, and pulled up track and derailed locomotives.
Both railroad companies battled against their respective obstacles to lay the most miles of track, therefore gaining the most land and money. Although the Central Pacific had a two-year head start over the Union Pacific, the rough terrain of the Sierra Nevada Mountains limited their construction to only 100 miles by the end of 1867. But once they were through the Sierras, the Central Pacific rail lines moved at tremendous speed. They were able to cross Nevada and reach the Utah border in 1868. From the east, the Union Pacific completed its line through Wyoming and was moving at an equal tempo from the east.
No end point had been set for the two rail lines when President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act in 1862, but a decision had to be made soon. By early 1869, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific were closing in on each other across northern Utah, aided by a Mormon workforce under contract to both companies. But neither side was interested in halting construction, as each company wanted to claim the $32,000 per mile government payment. Indeed, at one point the graders from both companies, working ahead of track layers, actually passed one another as they were unwilling to concede territory to their competitors.
THE WEST WILL NEVER BE THE SAME
On April 9, 1869, Congress established the meeting point in an area known as Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. Less than one month later, on May 10, 1869, locomotives from the two railroads met nose-to-nose to signal the joining of the two lines. At 12:57 p.m. local time, as railroad dignitaries hammered in ceremonial golden spikes, telegraphers announced the completion of the Pacific Railway. Canons boomed in San Francisco and Washington. Bells rang and fire whistles shrieked as people celebrated across the country. The nation was indeed united. Manifest Destiny was a reality. The six-month trip to California had been reduced to two weeks. And within only a few years, the transcontinental railroad turned the frontier wilderness of the western territories into regions populated by European-Americans, enabling business and commerce to proliferate and effectively ending the traditional Native American way of life. Now people who needed to cross the Plains and Mountains that had been taking settlers in their Prairie Schooner wagons between 5 and 6 months to make the trip, could now buy a ticket on the train and complete the trip in 5-6 days.
Crops and manufactured goods as well as livestock could be shipped back East to the busy markets in St. Louis and Chicago, as well as further East to the busiest markets in the Nation: those big cities located along the Atlantic Seaboard with their ever larger and growing populations of workers in factories, railroads, on the docks, construction, mines, and all the other millions of people working for wages with money to buy products. The West was now looked at as a production area of the nation needing settlers, farmers, and workers of all kinds. Now that money could be made from activities in the west, greater numbers of people would be headed to those regions to take advantage of the economic opportunities.
1) What national group made up the greatest part of the workforce for the Central Pacific Railroad?
2) Discuss some reasons these workers were found to be so valuable.
3) Even with a 2 year head start, why was the Central Pacific behind schedule by 1867?
4) Where did the two railroad companies eventually meet thus completing the 1st Transcontinental Railroad?
FOR ALL THEIR HARD AND DANGEROUS LABOR AS A MORAL AND DISCIPLINED PEOPLE ON THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD PROJECT, THE CHINESE WORKERS WERE UNAPPRECIATED. THEY EARNED WAGES THAT WERE FAR LESSER THAN OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS WERE PAID, THEY WERE ALSO TREATED WITH A DISRESPECT OVER AND ABOVE THAT OTHER WORKERS HAD TO CONTEND WITH. IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE COMPLETION OF THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD, A NATIONAL MOVEMENT BEGAN TO LIMIT THE NUMBER OF CHINESE IMMIGRANTS ALLOWED TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES. NO OTHER ETHNIC OR NATIONAL GROUP FROM ANY OTHER NATION EXPERIENCED SIMILAR TREATMENT. WE HAVE TO SEE THIS AS A CLEAR EXAMPLE OF DISCRIMINATION BY AMERICANS AGAINST A GOOD CULTURE THEY PERCEIVED AS NOT ONLY DIFFERENT FROM THEMSELVES, BUT NOT AS WORTHY, AND THEREFORE NOT DESERVING OF BECOMING AMERICANS.
DON'T FORGET THE "BELL RINGER"
AT THE BEGINNING OF TOMORROWS CLASS YOU WILL REVIEW YOUR 4 QUESTION/ANSWER COMBINATIONS FROM THE READING ASSIGNMENT OF THE PREVIOUS DAY. SELECT THE MOST INTERESTING OF THE WRITTEN RESPONSES, AND IT WILL BECOME YOUR "BEGINNING OF THE CLASS BELL RINGER". BEING ABSENT FROM CLASS FOR ANY REASON DOES NOT EXCUSE YOU FROM COMPLETING THIS AS WELL AS ANY OTHER CLASS WORK.
REPHRASE AND RESTATE THE MOST INTERESTING OF YESTERDAYS QUESTIONS INTO A MUCH MORE INFORMATIVE & INTERESTING 2 SENTENCE INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC. SKIP A SPACE AND THEN COMPOSE A MUCH BROADER, LONGER, MORE IN-DEPTH WRITTEN EXPLANATION THAN THE ANSWER YOU PROVIDED YESTERDAY WRITING A MINIMUM OF THREE FACT FILLED AND INFORMATIVE SENTENCES.
THIS "BELL RINGER SHOULD BE LOOKED AT AND WRITTEN AS IF IT IS A FORMAL ESSAY. THE SENTENCES MUST BE COMPLETE SENTENCES WHERE YOU GO INTO BROAD DETAIL EXPLAINING & DISCUSSING YOUR TOPIC.
YOU WILL BE GIVEN FROM 10-15 MINUTES TO WRITE THIS "MINI-ESSAY" SO HAVE IDEAS AS TO WHAT YOU WILL WRITE BEFORE THE CLOCK STARTS TICKING DOWN YOUR 10-15 MINUTES. WHATEVER IS LEFT UNFINISHED OR INCOMPLETE WILL REDUCE YOUR GRADE ON THE ACTIVITY.
REPHRASE AND RESTATE THE MOST INTERESTING OF YESTERDAYS QUESTIONS INTO A MUCH MORE INFORMATIVE & INTERESTING 2 SENTENCE INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC. SKIP A SPACE AND THEN COMPOSE A MUCH BROADER, LONGER, MORE IN-DEPTH WRITTEN EXPLANATION THAN THE ANSWER YOU PROVIDED YESTERDAY WRITING A MINIMUM OF THREE FACT FILLED AND INFORMATIVE SENTENCES.
THIS "BELL RINGER SHOULD BE LOOKED AT AND WRITTEN AS IF IT IS A FORMAL ESSAY. THE SENTENCES MUST BE COMPLETE SENTENCES WHERE YOU GO INTO BROAD DETAIL EXPLAINING & DISCUSSING YOUR TOPIC.
YOU WILL BE GIVEN FROM 10-15 MINUTES TO WRITE THIS "MINI-ESSAY" SO HAVE IDEAS AS TO WHAT YOU WILL WRITE BEFORE THE CLOCK STARTS TICKING DOWN YOUR 10-15 MINUTES. WHATEVER IS LEFT UNFINISHED OR INCOMPLETE WILL REDUCE YOUR GRADE ON THE ACTIVITY.