1. Railroads

3. Railroads in 1900

4. After the Civil War
A large labor force consisting of former Civil War soldiers and immigrants in need of jobs and land.
Civil War industries have built up capital.
Land now available.
Entrepreneurship…
Southern agriculture is in shambles after Civil War. Industry has money from producing arms and clothing and other war materials.

5. Leland Stanford
Made his fortune selling mining equipment to miners in the Gold Rush.
Governor of California.
President of Central Pacific Railroad.
Part of “Big Four”

6. Why Build a Railroad? Growth of trade on West Coast
booms of agriculture, oil, entertainment, and industry as well as logging and fishing.

8. Moving Products and Resources
Cattle trails

9. Connecting Small Communities
Montana Hi Line

10. Manifest Destiny
“Our manifest destiny [is] to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”
Very popular political stance

11. How Did the Railroads get Built?

12. Federal land grants and subsidies
Pacific Railroad Acts
Issued 30-year government bonds.
Received more than 175 million acres.
Almost twice the size of Montana
More than Texas; Montana is 94,106,880

14. Labor Stanford needed 5,000 people to build the railroad to Utah.
Chinese constitute two-thirds of entire workforce.
Irish and European immigrants.

15. How Rail lines were Built
1. Lay down tracks
3. Put in ties
2. Put down rails
4. Nail in spike

16. Transcontinental Railroad
From Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California.
1,800 miles of track
Six years to build
Central Pacific at first moved at pace of a foot a day going through the mountains but got it up to 10 miles
Travel from NY to California in a week, not six months

17. May 10, 1869 Promontory Summit, Utah