today we're looking at the transcontinental railroad
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additional resources that go along with several of these videos the transcontinental railroad would
connect the eastern part of the united states to the west the idea of having a railroad track
that would stretch all the way to california had been debated and dreamed of for many years the
baltimore and ohio railroad constructed the first steam engine in america in 1830 with the tom thumb
engine however steam engines had been used in europe for years before that but once steam
engine locomotives were introduced in america it took off from from there with over 8 000 miles
of track being laid east east of the mississippi river by 1850 but throughout the 1830s and 1840s
manifest destiny really began to take hold of the nation and americans began looking to the west and
add to it the discovery of gold in california and thousands of more began to flood into california
and to the west coast the problem was the journey itself was long and dangerous one could go over
land but the journey would take four to six months or you could go by sea from the east coast all the
way around south america and cape horn up to the western coast of north america but again that
journey was very expensive and took close to six months by 1845 legislation had been presented to
congress to get federal funding for a railroad to be built stretching to the west coast however due
to strained relations in congress as the nation was heading for civil war funding was never passed
but in 1860 theodore judah who was an engineer plotted out a path that would take the railroad
through the sierra nevada mountains judah was able to convince a group of investors to put money into
the idea and the central pacific railroad was born in 1861 judah took the idea to congress and met
with president abraham lincoln and convinced them of the possibility of building the route
the pacific railroad act became law on july 1st of 1862 and it basically provided federal
financial assistance to companies investing in building the railroad connecting to the
west coast the act said that the central pacific railroad company would start building track
heading east from sacramento california in the meantime the union pacific railroad company
would begin building tracks starting in omaha nebraska and head west the plan was that the two
rail lines would meet somewhere in the middle but the government added an incentive for each
railroad company to work faster for every mile of track laid the government would grant that company
twelve thousand eight hundred acres of land and forty eight thousand dollars in government bonds
so it became a race to see who could get the most track constructed both railroad companies
were were filled with corruption and investors eager to make profit for theodore judah he had
hoped to get different investors but judah died in 1863 of yellow fever so the central pacific
railroad went on without him the union pacific was run by dr thomas durant who had taken control
of the company illegally and had complete control over the construction of the railroad
although both railroads began construction by 1863 little happened because the nation was in
the midst of civil war but as soon as the war was over the focus moved to completing the railroad
thousands of veterans of the civil war joined the labor force for the union pacific many former
enslaved people moved west to work on the railroad as well as thousands of irish immigrants coming to
america join the workforce for the union pacific leg of the railroad on the western leg the central
pacific railroad relied heavily on labor provided by chinese immigrants who had moved to america
during the california gold rush it is estimated that somewhere between 15 to 20 000 chinese
immigrants worked on some of the most challenging sections of the track attempting to get through
the sierra nevada mountains hundreds of laborers died in accidents and explosions as the railroad
blasted its way through mountains and rock by mid-1867 the central pacific had cleared the
mountains and now had easier terrain in front of them by that same time the union pacific had laid
almost four times as much track but admittedly they had much easier terrain in front of them
coming from omaha nebraska across the plains and so by this point they were already to wyoming
now both rail lines began to head towards salt lake city utah both railroads had delays and
construction as much of the track being built was on native american land and fighting with
tribes such as the sioux and cheyenne broke out but nonetheless the construction continued
along the track many small communities popped up which were dominated by gambling and violence
lending to the stories of the wild west by the beginning of 1869 the two rail lines were
separated by barely 70 miles new president ulysses s grant announced that all government payments
to the railroads would be withheld until they agreed on a meeting point and completed the track
they agreed on promontory point utah about 60 miles north of salt lake city and on may 10 1869
a ceremony was arranged for the final spike to be driven completing the railroad at the ceremony
the heads of the railroad attempted to drive this final golden spike which was made of 17 carat gold
but none of them could do it and in the end one of the railroad workers simply took the hammer and
drove that final golden spike finishing the track and by the way that spike was removed and replaced
with a normal metal spike in the end the central pacific laid 690 miles of track and the union
pacific completed 1086 miles of track the railroad transformed the nation as now the journey from the
east coast to the west coast which had taken four to six months before now took a matter of barely
a week now items manufactured in the east could be easily transported and sold in the west and
raw materials from the west could be shipped to the east so this really revolutionized
the american economy so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching