The Transcontinental Railroad Slide #1

The Transcontinental Railroad Railroads had changed life in the East, but at the end of the Civil War railroad tracks still stopped at the Missouri River. Men dreamed of building a line from coast to coast. Slide #2

Problems With Travel Before 1860, transportation was slow and costly. People traveled west by horses, wagons or by stage coach. Railroads were not connected and did not go past the Missouri River. People had to switch from one means of travel to another. Some traveled west by ship around South America which took several months. Slide #3

The Transcontinental Railroad In 1862, Congress hired two companies to build these tracks. The Central Pacific was to push eastward from Sacramento, over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Union Pacific was to start from Omaha Nebraska, cross the Great Plains and cut through the Rockies.1862 Slide #4

The Transcontinental Railroad Slide #5 It was 1,775 miles from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California.

Two Railroads…….. One Goal ……….to link the East and West Union Pacific Started in Omaha, Nebraska Built tracks across the Great Plains Did not have enough workers Was away from towns and cities. Had conflicts with Native Americans Central Pacific Started in Sacramento, California Built tracks across the Sierra Nevada Mountains Did not have enough workers Used explosives that made work dangerous. Many workers were killed. Slide #6

The Transcontinental Railroad Railroad workers had a hard job. They would have to cut a path through high mountains; across deserts where there was no water; and across treeless prairies where Native American tribes would try to block their path and defend their homelands. Slide #7

.. x Omaha, Nebraska Sacramento, California Promontory Point, Utah Union Pacific Railroad Central Pacific Railroad In 1863, two companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, began to build the first transcontinental railroad. JjJj Slide #8

The Transcontinental Railroad The railroad companies would be paid in land and money for every mile of track laid. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific were in a race to see who could lay the most track – also to get the most land and money. The two lines would meet somewhere in the West. Slide #9

The Transcontinental Railroad Both railroads had a shortage of workers. The Civil War was still going on in the East and men were needed for the armies. Railroads solved their work force problem by hiring immigrant workers. Immigrants were people from other countries who moved to the United States looking to find more and better opportunities.. Slide #10

The Transcontinental Railroad The Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants. The Central Pacific hired Chinese immigrants. The work was hard and sometimes dangerous. These immigrants worked for low pay and worked long hours laying as much as ten miles of track per day. Slide #11

Chinese railroad workers in the snow. The workers survived scorching deserts, blinding snowstorms, and blasted through mountains to finish the railroad. Slide #12 The Transcontinental Railroad

May 10, 1869, The Central Pacific and the Union Pacific met at Promontory Point, Utah. The presidents of both railroads, swung at the last gold spike. The Transcontinental Railroad was now complete. Slide #13

The Transcontinental Railroad Locate Promontory Point on the map below. Slide #14

The Impact of the Railroads Before the railroads, each town kept its own time. Railroad companies needed a more exact time system. They devised a system with four time zones – Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time. Every place in the same time zone had the same time. Slide #15

The Impact of the Railroads The railroads started economic growth. Steelworkers produced tons of steel for tracks and engines. Lumberjacks supplied wood for railroad ties. Miners dug coal to fuel the engines. Slide #16

The Impact of the Railroads The railroads opened the whole country to settlement and growth. A positive effect was that goods and people could be transported more easily, quickly and less costly. However this growth and settlement had a negative effect on the way of life for the Native Americans of the Great Plains region. Slide #17

The Impact of the Railroads The culture of the Plains Indians depended on the buffalo. The buffalo provided meat for food, skins for clothing and shelter coverings, bones and horns used for tools and weapons. The growing number of trains, people and settlements drove the buffalo and Plains Indians from their homeland. Slide #18

The Transcontinental Railroad The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 linked the East to the West. A trip across country that once took as long as six months would only take one week. The Transcontinental Railroad revolutionized transportation and opened the path for Westward Expansion of the United States. Slide #19

Credits Slide show created by Marie Sontag,  html bin/frameit.cgi?p=http%3A//search.biography.com/print_record.pl%3Fid%3D bin/frameit.cgi?p=http%3A//search.biography.com/print_record.pl%3Fid%3D bin/frameit.cgi?p=http%3A//search.biography.com/print_record.pl%3Fid%3D Slide show modified and adapted by Sheilah Mervin ~ 7/08/2010 Additional sounds and images retrieved from;