The mining industry facilitated expansion of the railroad industry by creating a need for quick and easy transport between mining and production sites. Entrepreneurs responded with the first transcontinental railroad.

Prior to the Civil War, railroads had been in use east of the Missouri River. The country’s leaders hoped to span the void of the Great American Desert with a railway that would connect the populous areas and truly unite the states.

The challenge of a transcontinental railroad was too overwhelming for any one company to undertake without government support. The western portion of the railroad would need to cross mountainous terrain and span hundreds of miles of prairie with no nearby water source. In addition, the workers who would create this line would need to do so under the constant threat of Indian warfare.

Since the risk was too great for any one company to assume, the federal government stepped in and awarded charters to two railway companies in 1862 to complete connecting sections of the track. The Union Pacific was awarded the charter for the section of track from the Missouri River, across the Great Plains, and through the Rocky Mountains. The Central Pacific’s charter directed them to begin working in Sacramento, California, and work eastward through the Sierra Nevada mountains.

A federal assistance package, signed by President Lincoln, awarded generous loans and land grants to the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific. When the project started, the companies were each awarded $16,000 for each mile of level track laid, $32,000 for each mile of track through the plateaus, and $48,000 for each mile through the mountains. Those figures doubled at the encouragement of lobbyists within a year of the project’s start. In addition, each company was awarded 6,400 acres of federal land for each mile of track laid.

Both companies raced to complete the most miles of track to receive the most money and land. These incentives often led to shoddy work that would need to be repaired or replaced soon after the railway was put in use, but company officials pushed their employees toward quick completion rather than quality work. These questionable business practices earned them the nickname “robber barons.”

Both Union Pacific and Central Pacific had a very diverse labor supply. Union Pacific laborers were primarily ex-soldiers and Irish immigrants. Central Pacific’s workforce consisted mainly of Chinese men who had followed the dream of wealth to the United States. Many of these men arrived without their families, intending to stay only long enough to amass their fortunes and then return to their homeland. However, building railroads was grueling work, made even more challenging by the bigotry of their white bosses, as well as constant threat by Indians, and many Chinese died on the job.

Still, the companies pushed forward, each hoping to build more track—and reap more profit—than the other. The two lines finally met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. The Union Pacific had built 1,086 miles of track, far more than Central Pacific’s 689 miles. The meeting was a ceremony, one which is often called the “wedding of the rails.” California governor Leland Stanford was on hand for the ceremony, and he drove a final golden spike into the railway to signify the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. The vision of Stephen Douglas as stated in his Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 had finally been realized.

Soon, there were several lines of transcontinental railroad crossing the nation. Track ran through nearly every state and territory west of the Mississippi, with lines going north as well as south. As farms, ranches, and towns cropped up along the railway lines, the rail companies continued to profit as they sold the land that had been granted to them by the government.

The transcontinental railroads benefited the mining industry by carrying people westward and carrying ore to production sites. However, the railroads also revolutionized other industries, particularly agriculture. Prior to the transcontinental railroad, cattle going to slaughter had to be herded from the range to the market by cowboys on horseback. By the time the cattle reached their destination, they were thin and in poor condition, making them less valuable. The use of railroad transportation for cattle to market allowed for quicker, less stressful trips and higher market prices.

In addition, as progress was being made on the railroads, an important improvement to the trains themselves was being invented. The refrigerator car was developed to transport dressed meat from the slaughterhouse to markets across the country. Although it took some time for consumers to accept dressed meat over fresh meat at their local markets, its availability and cheaper prices eventually made it the standard.

In all, the transcontinental railroad benefited Americans in many ways. In addition to the transport of cattle and meat, it allowed speedier mail delivery, eventually replacing the Pony Express. It also allowed for easier transport of military aid to areas of conflict, which was a constant concern as American settlers encroached upon land possessed by Indians.

Copyright 2006 The Regents of the University of California and Monterey Institute for Technology and Education