The Transcontinental Railroad

Railroads had already transformed life in the East, but at the end of the Civil War they still

stopped at the Missouri River. For a quarter of a century, men had dreamed of building a line

from coast to coast.

The Transcontinental Railroad

The Transcontinental Railroad stretches 1,775 miles from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California and took more than 20,000 workers over 6 years to build.

The Transcontinental Railroad

It would have to be cut through mountains higher than any railroad-builder had ever faced, span

raging rivers, traverse deserts where there was no water to be found, and cross treeless prairies where anxious and defiant Indians would resist

their passage.

The Political Decision

In 1862, Congress gave charters to two companies to build it. The Union Pacific

was to start from Omaha, Nebraska, cross the great plains and cut through the Rocky Mountains. The Central Pacific was to push eastward from Sacramento, CA. over the

Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Thomas C. Durant

The Union Pacific was run by Thomas C. Durant

Durant was a scoundrel and tyrant motivated by making “easy money”.

After three years, and a cost of more than $500,000, the Union Pacific had laid only 40 miles of track.

The Union Pacific

To salvage the Union Pacific, Durant brought in Grenville Dodge, a civil engineer who, during the Civil War, had built railroads so fast they used to say of him, "We don't know where he is, but we

can see where he has been."

Theodore Judah

Judah created the Central Pacific Railroad Co. and served as the railroad's agent in Washington, D.C.He became known as "Crazy Judah" because of his passion for driving a railroad through the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The Central PacificAfter discovering a route for the railroad

through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Theodore Judah located four Sacramento investors who each purchased $15,000 of stock in the newly

born Central Pacific Railroad. These men became known as the “Big Four”.

“The Big Four”.

Stanford Huntington Hopkins Crocker

The “Big Four” were Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles

Crocker. The Central Pacific Railroad made these four investors some of the wealthiest

men in America.

Leland StanfordLeland Stanford had made a fortune selling

supplies to California gold miners. In 1861, he became governor of California and later became

president of the Central Pacific Railroad.

Huntington and Hopkins

Collis P. Huntington also moved to California during the gold rush. The Sacramento hardware store he and Mark Hopkins owned made money

selling goods to miners at inflated prices.

Charles CrockerCharles Crocker went to California in search of

gold. But, like the other “Big Four”, he too struck it rich after opening a store in

Sacramento.

“The Big Four”

Who were “The Big Four”?

S________ H__________ H_______ C________

Those Who Built It

The real heroes of the railroad, however, were the 20,000 men who labored to build it with their bare hands.

Conditions were harsh for workers; freezing winters, searing summer heat, Indian attacks, and most dangerous of all, the lawless and violent end-of-the-track towns called "hell-on-wheels”.

The Irish Laborers

Worked as pick and shovel men, teamsters, blacksmiths, mechanics, carpenters, masons, and track-layers.

Crews lived in railroad cars, including dormitories and an arsenal car containing loaded rifles for protection in the event of an Indian attack. .

Crews worked up to16 hour days, seven days a week, including most weekends, laying more than a mile of track per day.

Many were Civil War veterans. Average pay... a dollar a day.

The Chinese

The Chinese Laborers

In 1865, Crocker, in charge of construction, found a solution to their work force problem.

Besides hiring Irish immigrants who worked for low pay, the Central Pacific Railroad began

employing over 10,000 Chinese immigrants.

The Money Motivator

In 1862, Congress loaned the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads $16,000 per mile of level track and $48,000 per mile of mountain track. Congress also promised each company 6,400 acres of federal land for every mile of

track it laid.

The Race Is On!!

The Union Pacific and Central Pacific were soon locked in a race to see who could lay the most track -- and therefore get the most land and money. Somewhere in the West -- no one knew exactly where -- the two lines were supposed to meet.

The Railroad Record

In 1866, the CPR had 44 blizzards while trying to tunnel through the Sierras. In 1869, the CPR laid 360 miles of track. On April 28, 1869, the

CPR crew set a record of laying 10 miles in twelve hours.

The Final Spike

Finally, on May 10, 1869, The UPR and CPR met at Promontory Summit, Utah. The presidents of both railroads, Durant and Stanford, swung at

the last gold spike.

"May God continue the unity of our Country as the Railroad unites the two great Oceans of the world."

Promontory Point

How The Railroads Changed Time

Before the railroads, each town kept its own time, based on the position of the sun. Railroad companies, however, needed more exact time tables. They devised a system with four time zones – eastern, central, mountain, and pacific time. Every place within the same time zone

observed the same time.

Pullman Cars

George Pullman approached Durant in 1867 with the idea of sleeper cars. Pullman cars of the 1860s and '70s eased travel and offered some luxury, notwithstanding the perils of early train travel.The lavish passenger trains touched off an industrial and architectural design movement by using streamlined chrome, plastic, synthetic fiber and coordinated color schemes.Pullman passengers and staff (who were mostly black) enjoyed a world of fine wood, excellent upholstery, and food you could only find at the finest restaurants back home.

The Pullman Sleeper and Dining Cars

Railroad lines also added sleeper and dining cars where porters, conductors and waiters attended

to the needs of passengers.

Technology of the Railroads

In 1869, George Westinghouse helped make railway travel safer and faster with the

invention of a new air brake. On early trains, each railroad car had its own brakes and brake operator. If different cars stopped at different times, accidents resulted. The new air brake

allowed an engineer to stop all the cars at once.

How the Railroads Changed America

The railroads spurred economic growth. Steel-workers turned millions of tons of iron into steel

for track. Lumberjacks supplied wood for railroad ties. Miners dug coal to fuel the

engines. The railroads opened every corner of the country to settlement and growth.

Central Pacific locomotive No. 1