Westward Expansion, Cross-Country Shipping, and the Transcontinental Railroad

The Transcontinental Railroad was built in the 1860s to link the East Coast and West Coast, allowing for the cross-country shipping of goods and transportation of people much faster and more safely. Before the railroad was completed, it took months to travel across the country by wagon, but after, people and products could make the journey in a matter of days. The idea of creating a cross-country rail line came about in the 1830s, but it wasn’t until the 1860s that federal legislation put a concrete plan into place to make it happen.

• The Transcontinental Railroad
• A Brief History of Building the Transcontinental Railroad
• The Transcontinental Railroad: The Beginning of America’s Industrial Might
• History of the Transcontinental Railroad
• Origins of the Transcontinental Railroad

The Route

When the idea of a cross-country rail line was being debated, two plans emerged for the route that it should take across the West. The first plan hewed close to the Oregon Trail, the route that wagon trains took to the West Coast. This path led from Omaha, Nebraska, through Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada, ending in Sacramento, California. The second plan called for a more southerly route that would run from Texas through New Mexico and Arizona, ending in Los Angeles, California. Ultimately, Congress decided on the more northerly of the two routes.

• A Southern Transcontinental Railroad Into California: Texas and Pacific Versus Southern Pacific
• Mapping the First Transcontinental Railroad
• America’s Need for a Second Transcontinental Railway

Pacific Railroad Acts

In 1862, the first federal law was passed to set the process of building the Transcontinental Railroad in motion. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, signed on July 1 by President Abraham Lincoln, authorized the granting of federal land to the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad for the project, along with the issuance of government bonds to help finance the work. A second law, the Pacific Railroad Act of 1863, was passed to establish the gauge that would be used in constructing the new line as 4 feet 8.5 inches, the standard gauge used in the Northeast.

• The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862
• An Act to Aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line From the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean and to Secure to the Government the Use of the Same for Postal, Military, and Other Purposes
• The Origin of the Railroad Gauge

Building the Railroad

To build the Transcontinental Railroad, the two companies started at either end and worked toward each other. The Central Pacific Railroad started in California; the Union Pacific began its work in the Midwest, connecting to existing rail lines leading farther east. Both companies faced a difficult task beset with challenges. As the Central Pacific worked its way east, it had to blast tunnels through the mountains of the Sierra Nevada. Progress was slow; they could only advance about 1 foot per day as they tunneled through the mountains. Meanwhile, the Union Pacific worked on easier terrain, but their work was made equally difficult by Native American raids. The Native Americans were upset that some of their land had been stolen to give to the railroads, and they also knew that the arrival of the railroad would further threaten their way of life.

• Building the Transcontinental Railroad
• Tunneling in the Sierra Nevada
• The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on Native Americans

The Workers

The vast majority of the people who built the Transcontinental Railroad were immigrants. Most of the laborers for the Union Pacific Railroad were Irish immigrants, many of whom had also fought in the Civil War. The Central Pacific Railroad relied on Chinese immigrants to build its share of the line. As the two companies drew closer to each other, Utah Mormons contributed to the effort to complete the project.

• Chinese Labor and the Iron Road
• What Archaeologists Are Learning About the Lives of the Chinese Immigrants Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
• Remembering the Migrants Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad

The Golden Spike

The two railroads finally met on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit in Utah. The final spike driven in to complete the line was made of gold, and the honor of hammering it into place was given to Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad and a former governor of California. However, after the ceremony, the golden spike was removed to keep it from being stolen; it was replaced by a regular iron spike. Today, the golden spike is on display at Stanford University in California.

• The Great Race to Promontory
• Driving the Golden Spike
• Where Are the Precious Spikes of the Transcontinental Railroad?

Interesting Facts About the First Transcontinental Railroad and Westward Expansion

• When the route was being debated, those in favor of the more southern route expressed concerns that if the route was placed farther north, trains would be halted by snow in the winter. However, the Pony Express could make it along the same route in the winter, proving that it was a viable route for the new rail line.
• The completed length of the rail line was 1,776 miles.
• Other names for the Transcontinental Railroad include the Overland Route and the Pacific Railroad.
• In November 1869, the railroad was connected to the West Coast by an extension from Sacramento to San Francisco.

Further Reading

• Myth and History: Driving the Golden Spike
• Railroads Tie California to the Rest of the Nation
• The Transcontinental Railroad
• How the Transcontinental Railroad Forever Changed the U.S.
• Railroad to the Pacific
• The Transcontinental Railroad
• Cross-Country Car Shipping
• Crash Course: Westward Expansion
• Basic Facts About the Oregon Trail
• The Impact of the Railroad: The Iron Horse and the Octopus
• What’s the Big Deal About the Transcontinental Railroad?
• Irish Railroad Workers
• Who Besides the Chinese and Irish Built the Transcontinental Railroad? Latter-Day Saints
• The Contributions of the Chinese Transcontinental Railroad Workers
• Forgotten by Society: How Chinese Migrants Built the Transcontinental Railroad
• Transcontinental Railroad United the United States
• Driving the Last Spike
• Five Facts About the Transcontinental Railroad
• The Transcontinental Railroad and Native Lands: A Story of Displacement and Desolation
• Building the Transcontinental Railroad, the Moon Shot of the 19th Century

This page was last updated by Marc Gregory