Transcontinental Railroad

"How dare you try to hog all the continent!" - Collis Huntington, Vice-President, Central Pacific Railroad Co. in 1862

The above statement may sound socialist or Marxist from a reader's point of view, but this same person played a very important role in building the first transcontinental railroad known as Pacific Railroad. What seemed impossible or illogical a couple of centuries ago, has become a need of the time today. A civilized society just can't continue without basic infrastructure. Even though the world's first inter-oceanic railroad was the Panama Railway, which was completed in 1855, the transcontinental railroad remained a distant dream due to delays in approvals.

In the United States, the term 'Transcontinental Railroad' refers to the railway line starting from the banks of Mississippi River, running over the Rocky Mountains to join the coastal regions of California. In 1938, John Plumbe, an entrepreneur, called a convention for the planning of the Pacific Railroad in the United States. In 1845, the basic plan with all the requirements was presented to the federal government by Asa Whitney, a railroad projector and American merchant. He requested the government to subsidize the cost incurred in the plan for a railroad link from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

Transcontinental Railroad
The history of the transcontinental railroad is contemporary to the steam locomotives which were running on railroads in different countries at that time. Transcontinental Railroad at that point, was a distant dream. As the route of the Pacific Railroad could not be finalized, the bill was never passed, even though 90 million dollars were granted for its construction. Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth President of United States promoted the plan and the bill for the transcontinental railroad. Later in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln passed the bill which was called the Pacific railroad bill.

In 1846, gold mines were discovered in California. Shortage of workers was not a problem, as there was a huge influx of people. Many Irish and Chinese workers migrated from their respective homelands to the United States to work on this project. There were many incidents of accidents and avalanches during the construction phase of this mega project. Even when the snow was not on the ground, the work in Sierra Nevada was very dangerous and slow; workers were not able to progress for more than six inches per day. There were explosions carried out on hard platform of granites and lives of the workers were at risk. But, they went ahead with drilling the holes, dynamiting the land.

Theodore D. Judah was the chief engineer of the railroad surveying team that finished the work in 1854. The Secretary of State, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi had southern vested interests, and found the route running through Gadsden lands very cost effective. There was a split in Congress on this issue. Then, in 1861, most of the southern Senators left Congress, resulting in the funding beginning immediately and allowing work to start on the northern route. In the same year, Theodore Judah brought established the Central Pacific Railroad in 1861; and the dream of a transcontinental railroad started taking shape. In 1862, Judah was appointed as the Secretary of the House and Senate Committees. In consonance with the remaining part of the plan, the Union Pacific Railroad Co. was established in Chicago in September 1862. It started working on building the railroad from Missouri River Bluffs. Simultaneously, the Central Pacific Co. started building the railroad from Sacramento and work on both sides started running towards each other.

Both the railroad sections finally met at the Promontory Point in Utah, where their tracks were joined. To celebrate this event, gold spike and bronze hammer was used to tie the last joint. This historical event in transportation history of the continent as well as the world, occurred at on May 10, 1869 and is still known as the Gold Spike Ceremony.

The journey of a continental size was reduced from months to days. Initially, it took six months to travel from San Francisco to New York, but after the railroad was completed, it took just ten days. Thus, with the transcontinental railroad, the country was connected like never before. The people traveled more often and farther, and in very pleasant conditions. It also changed the lives of native Americans. Its tracks ran through a number of tribal territories, which resulted into two things. Though there was conflict between the natives and the whites; it also helped in intermixing of the two races and cultures. The new railroad also attracted an increasing number of European American settlers to the west.

One consequence of this influx was the depletion of the buffalo herds, a major source of food for native Americans. European Americans would often shoot buffaloes for sport from the train, and by 1880, most of the buffaloes had perished. People who started moving west discovered millions of acres of open grassland and started settling there. Eventually, most of this arable land that was dormant for many ages became irrigated farmland that fed a growing and developing nation. The transcontinental railroad brought the west closer to the rest of the country. The project became a blueprint for many generations. Life of the people changed a lot, and trade between the east and the west flourished significantly. It is estimated that trade had grown to 50 million dollars, within the first decade of the completion of this railroad.

After the success of Pacific railroad link, many organizations like North Pacific Railway were established. In 1882, the Southern Pacific Railroad was connected to Atchison, Kansas and then to Los Angeles. Then in 1883, it was extended from Los Angeles to New Orleans; thus, linking Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. In the same year, Northern Pacific Railway linked Chicago with Seattle. Canada also started the work on its first transcontinental railroad which was completed in 1885. Today, there is a spiderweb of rail networks and the lines are spread across the length and breadth of the country, stretching in different directions. This railroad link proved to be a boon for settlers coming in to settle on the millions of acres of land, thus acting as a catalyst for growth and progress.