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First Transcontinental Railroad
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First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad
(known originally as the "Pacific Railroad"
and later as the "Overland Route") was a
railroad line built in the United States of
America between 1863 and 1869 by the
Central Pacific Railroad of California and
the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its
statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs,
Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska[1][2] (via Ogden,
Utah, and Sacramento, California) with the
Pacific Ocean at Oakland, California on the
eastern shore of San Francisco Bay opposite
San Francisco. By linking with the existing
railway network of the Eastern United
States, the road thus connected the Atlantic
and Pacific coasts of the United States by
rail for the first time. The line was popularly
known as the Overland Route after the
principal passenger rail service that operated
over the length of the line through the end of
1962.[3]
At the ceremony for the driving of the "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit, Utah,
May 10, 1869
The construction and operation of the line
was authorized by the Pacific Railroad Acts
of 1862 and 1864 during the American Civil
War. Congress supported it with 30-year
U.S. government bonds and extensive land
grants
of
government-owned
land.
Transcontinental Railroad 75th Anniversary Issue of 1944
Completion of the railroad was the
culmination of a decades-long movement to
build such a line. It was one of the crowning achievements in the crossing of plains and high mountains westward by
the Union Pacific and eastward by the Central Pacific. Opened for through traffic on May 10, 1869, with the driving
of the "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit, Utah, the road established a mechanized transcontinental transportation
network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West.
The Pacific Railroad constituted one of the most significant and ambitious American technological feats of the 19th
century following in the footsteps of the building of the Erie Canal in the 1820s and the crossing of the Isthmus of
Panama by the Panama Railroad in 1855. It served as a vital link for trade, commerce and travel that joined the
eastern and western halves of the late 19th-century United States. The transcontinental railroad slowly ended most of
the far slower and more hazardous stagecoach lines and wagon trains that had preceded it. The railroads led to the
decline of traffic on the Emigrant Trails which had populated much of the west. They provided much faster, safer
and cheaper (8 days and about $65 economy) transport east and west for people and goods across half a continent.
The railroads' sales of land-grant lots, and the transport provided for timber and crops, led to the rapid settling of the
supposed "Great American Desert". The main workers on the Union Pacific were many Army veterans and Irish
immigrants. Most of the engineers and supervisors were Army veterans who had learned their trade keeping the
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trains running during the American Civil War. The Central Pacific, facing a labor shortage in the West, relied on
mostly Chinese immigrant laborers. They did prodigious work building the line over and through the Sierra Nevada
mountains and across Nevada to the meeting in Utah.
The railroad was motivated in part to bind the eastern and western
states of the United States together. The Central Pacific started work in
1863. Due to competition with the War for workers, rails, ties, railroad
engines and supplies, the Union Pacific RR did not start construction
until July 1865. Completion of the railroad substantially accelerated
populating the West, while contributing to the decline of territory
controlled by the Native Americans in these regions. In 1879, the
Supreme Court of the United States formally established, in its
decision regarding Union Pacific Railroad vs. United States (99 U.S.
402), the official "date of completion" of the Transcontinental Railroad
as November 6, 1869.
Pacific Railroad Bond, City and County of San
Francisco, 1865
The Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific Railroad combined operations in 1870 and formally merged in 1885.
Union Pacific originally bought the Southern Pacific in 1901, but in 1913 was forced to divest it. In 1996 the Union
Pacific acquired the Southern Pacific. Much of the original right-of-way is still in use today and owned by the Union
Pacific.
Needing rapid communication, the companies built telegraph lines along the railroad rights of way as the track was
laid. The linkage made these lines easier to protect and maintain than the original First Transcontinental Telegraph
lines, which went over much of the original routes of the Mormon Trail and the Central Nevada Route through
central Utah and Nevada. They soon superseded the earlier lines, which were mostly abandoned.
Route
Route of the first American transcontinental
railroad from Sacramento, California, to Council
Bluffs, Iowa.
Profile of the Pacific Railroad from Council
Bluffs/Omaha to San Francisco
The Union Pacific's 1,087 miles (1,749 km) of track started at MP 0.0
in Council Bluffs, Iowa[1] on the eastern side of the Missouri River, the
location of its Transfer Depot where up to seven railroads could
transfer mail and other goods to Union Pacific trains bound for the
west from which they then crossed the river over the Union Pacific
Missouri River Bridge (opened in 1873) to Omaha, Nebraska. (Before
the bridge was completed trains crossed the river by ferry.) After the
rail line's initial steep climb through the bluffs of west Omaha and out
of the Missouri River Valley, the route followed the Platte River west
through Nebraska, establishing many townships along the way
(Elkhorn, Grand Island, North Platte, Ogallala, Sidney, Nebraska), the
Colorado Territory (Julesburg), the Wyoming Territory (Cheyenne,
Laramie, Green River, Evanston), the Utah Territory (Ogden, Brigham
City, Corinne), and connecting with the Central Pacific at Promontory
Summit.[4] The route did not pass through the two biggest cities in the
Great American Desert—Denver, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Feeder lines were built to service the two cities.
The Central Pacific laid 690 miles (1,100 km) of track, starting in Sacramento, California, and continuing over the
Sierra Nevada mountains into Nevada. It passed through Newcastle, California and Truckee, California, Reno,
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Nevada, Wadsworth, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Elko, and Wells, Nevada, before connecting with the Union
Pacific line at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory. Later, the western part of the route was extended to the
Alameda Terminal in Alameda, California, and shortly thereafter, to the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point in
Oakland, California. When the eastern end of the CPRR was extended to Ogden, it ended the short period of a boom
town for Promontory. Before the CPRR was completed, developers were building other railroads in Nevada and
California to connect to it.[5]
In 1869 the Hannibal Bridge at Kansas City was built and allowed connection to the Kansas Pacific Railway. The
Kansas Pacific then linked with the Denver Pacific Railway via Denver to Cheyenne in 1870. The UP's Missouri
River Bridge between Council Bluffs and Omaha directly connected the Union Pacific mainline to the East in 1873.
Modern-day Interstate 80 closely follows the path of the railroad, with one exception. Between Echo, Utah and
Wells, Nevada, Interstate 80 passes through the larger Salt Lake City and passes along the south shore of the Great
Salt Lake. The Railroad had blasted and tunneled its way down the Weber River canyon to Ogden and around the
north shore of the Great Salt Lake (roughly paralleling modern Interstate 84 and State Route 30). While routing the
railroad along the Weber River, Mormon workers signed the Thousand Mile Tree, to commemorate the milestone. A
historic marker has been placed there.[6] The portion of the railroad around the north shore of the lake is no longer
intact. In 1904, the Lucin Cutoff, a causeway across the center of the Great Salt Lake, shortened the route by
approximately 43 miles (69 km), traversing Promontory Point instead of Promontory Summit.
History
California Developments
Asa Whitney
Talk of a transcontinental railroad started in 1830, shortly after steam powered
railroads were invented in Great Britain and began to be introduced into the
United States. This talk intensified as railroad technology advanced and the
Oregon Territory and California were added to United States Territory in 1846
and 1848. Early debates were not so much over whether it would be built, but
how it would be paid for and what route it should follow:
• "central route", to avoid the worst of the Rocky Mountains by following the
Platte River in Nebraska and the South Pass in Wyoming, much of the path of
the Oregon Trail, or
• "southern route", to avoid the barrier of the Rockies by going across Texas,
New Mexico Territory, across the Sonora desert and on to Los Angeles,
California.
Initially, a "northern route", roughly following the path of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition along the Missouri River through present-day northern Montana to
Oregon Territory, was considered impractical because of high winter snows.
One of the most prominent champions of the central route railroad was Asa
Whitney (a distant cousin to cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney). Whitney
envisioned a route from Chicago and the Great Lakes to northern California, paid
for by the sale of land to settlers along the route.
The official poster announcing the
Pacific Railroad's grand opening.
In June 1845 Whitney led a team along part of the proposed route to assess its feasibility. Whitney traveled widely to
solicit support from businessmen and politicians, printed maps and pamphlets, and submitted several proposals to
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Congress, all at his own expense. Legislation to begin construction of the Pacific Railroad (called the Memorial of
Asa Whitney) was first introduced to Congress by Representative Zadock Pratt.[7] Congress did not act on Whitney's
proposal.
The Oregon Question was settled in 1846 when the United States and Great Britain agreed to a Canadian–U.S.
boundary at the 49th parallel. US forces took over California in 1846, which came under formal United States
control in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War. The
discovery of gold in California in January 1848 set off the California Gold Rush, and the number of settlers going to
California skyrocketed. By 1850 California had enough settlers arriving by the California Trail and by sea to become
the 31st state.
Whitney saw a version of the central route completed, although he was not formally involved.
The southern route and the Gadsden Purchase
Concerns lingered that snow would make the central route to California impractical. A survey after 1848 indicated
that the best route for a southern route had been overlooked when the US accepted a boundary proposed by Mexico
in their peace treaty. With Santa Anna in power in Mexico, the US in 1853 made the Gadsden Purchase, acquiring
the southern portions of what is now New Mexico and Arizona for $10,000,000. The southern route could now be
built entirely within U.S. territory.
Because the US Congress was divided between slave and non-slave state members, it could not reach agreement on
supporting construction of a particular route. Each region wanted the railroad because of its benefits. The decision
became embroiled in the divisive sectional dispute that eventually turned into the American Civil War. The southern
route was not constructed until 1880, when the Southern Pacific Railroad crossed Arizona territory.
Theodore Judah
The next big champion of the central route was Theodore Judah. Judah
undertook to survey and plan a way through what was one of the chief
obstacles of a central route to California: a way over the high and
rugged Sierra Nevada mountains.
Judah was chief engineer for the newly formed Sacramento Valley
Railroad in 1852, the first railroad built west of the Mississippi River.
Although the railroad was to go bankrupt, he was convinced that a
properly financed railroad could pass from Sacramento through the
Sierra Nevada mountains to reach the Great Basin and hook up with
rail lines coming from the East.
In 1856 Judah wrote a 13,000-word proposal in support of a Pacific
railroad and distributed it to Cabinet secretaries, congressmen, and
other influential people. In September 1859, Judah was chosen to be
the accredited lobbyist for the Pacific Railroad Convention. The
Theodore Judah, architect of the Transcontinental
Railroad and first chief engineer of the Central
convention approved his plan to survey, finance, and engineer the road.
Pacific.
Judah returned to Washington in December 1859. He had a lobbying
office in the United States Capitol, received an audience with President
James Buchanan, and represented the Convention before Congress.
In February 1860 Iowa Representative Samuel Curtis introduced a bill to build the railroad. It passed the House but
died when it could not be reconciled with the Senate version.
Judah returned to California in 1860. He continued to search for a more practical route through the Sierras suitable
for a railroad. In the summer of 1860, a local miner, Daniel Strong, had surveyed a route over the Sierras for a
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wagon toll road, a route he realized would also suit a railroad. He described his discovery in a letter to Judah.
Together they formed an association to solicit subscriptions from local merchants and businessmen to support their
proposed railroad.
From January or February 1861 until July, Judah and Strong led a
10-person expedition to survey the route for the railroad over the
Sierra Nevada, through Clipper Gap, Emigrant Gap, Donner Pass,
and south to Truckee. They discovered a way across the Sierras
that was gradual enough to be made suitable (with much work) for
a railroad.
Before major construction could begin Judah traveled back to New
York City to raise funds to buy out The Big Four. Shortly after he
arrived in New York, however, Judah died on November 2, 1863,
of yellow fever that he had contracted while traveling over the
Panama Railroad's transit of the Isthmus of Panama.[8] The CPRR
Engineering Department was taken over by Samuel S. Montegue
as his successor as Chief Engineer, and Chief Assistant Engineer
(later Acting Chief Engineer) Lewis Metzler Clement who also
became Superintendent of Track.
The Big Four and Central Pacific Railroad
Main articles: The Big Four and Central Pacific Railroad
Collis Huntington, a hardware merchant, heard Judah's presentation
about the railroad at the St. Charles Hotel in Sacramento in November
1860. He invited Judah to his office to hear his proposal in detail.
Huntington changed Judah's strategy of finding several investors and
instead sought to raise the money from three partners: Mark Hopkins,
his business partner; James Bailey, a jeweler; Leland Stanford, a
grocer, future governor of California, and founder of Stanford
University; and Charles Crocker, a dry-goods merchant and eventual
owner of Crocker Banks. They initially invested $1,500 each and
formed a board of directors: The investors became known as The Big
Four and their railroad was called the Central Pacific Railroad. Each
were eventually to make millions of dollars from their continuing
investments and control of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR).
Lewis M. Clement, Chief Assistant Engineer and
Superintendent of Track
Leland Stanford's official gubernatorial portrait
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Pacific Railroad Act
The Pony Express from 1860 to 1861 was to prove that the Central Nevada Route across Nevada and Utah and the
sections of the Oregon Trail across Wyoming and Nebraska was viable during the winter. With the American Civil
War raging and a secessionist movement in California gaining steam, the apparent need for the railroad became more
urgent.
In 1861 Curtis again introduced a bill to establish the railroad, but it did not pass. After the secession of the southern
states, the House of Representatives on May 6, 1862, and the Senate on June 20 finally approved it. Lincoln signed it
into law on July 1. The act established the two main lines—the Central Pacific from the west and the Union Pacific
from the mid-west. Other rail lines were encouraged to build feeder lines.
Each was required to build only 50 miles (80 km) in the first year; after that, only 50 miles (80 km) more were
required each year. Each railroad received $16,000 per mile ($9,940/km) built over an easy grade, $32,000 per mile
($19,880/km) in the high plains, and $48,000 per mile ($29,830/km) in the mountains. This payment was in the form
of government bonds that the companies could resell. To allow the railroads to raise additional money Congress
provided additional assistance to the railroad companies in the form of land grants of federal lands. They were
granted right-of-ways of 400 feet (100 m) plus 10 square miles (26 km2) of land (ten sections) adjacent to the track
for every mile of track built. To avoid a railroad monopoly on good land, the land was not given away in a
continuous swath but in a "checkerboard" pattern leaving federal land in between that could be purchased from the
government. The land grant railroads, receiving millions of acres of public land, sold bonds based on the value of the
lands, sold the land to settlers, used the money to build their railroads, and contributed to a rapid settlement of the
West.[9] The total area of the land grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific was even larger than the area of the
state of Texas: federal government land grants totaled about 5,261,000,000 square meters and state government land
grants totaled about 1,983,000,000 square meters.[10] The race was on to see which railroad company could build the
longest section of track and receive the most land and government bonds.
The bonds and land grants have been frequently characterised as a government subsidy. However, historian Stephen
Ambrose has argued against this since the companies repaid both the capital and interest.[11] He also argues that
although the companies were able to sell the land grants in the Sacramento Valley and Nebraska at "a good price",
most of the land in Wyoming, Utah and Nevada was "virtually worthless".[12]
Eastern Developments
Eastern Terminus
Further information: Transportation in Omaha
Once it was decided that the railroad would follow the central route
rather than the southern route, there was little question that the western
terminus would be Sacramento. However, there was considerable
intrigue over the eastern terminus.
The three prime candidates for the eastern terminus on 250 miles
(400 km) of Missouri River between Kansas City and Omaha were:
• Council Bluffs/Omaha proposed by Thomas C. Durant via an
extension of his proposed Mississippi and Missouri Railroad via the
new Union Pacific Railroad.
Lincoln Memorial where Abraham Lincoln is
said to have selected Council Bluffs as the eastern
terminus after visiting this site in 1859 under the
employ of Thomas C. Durant.
• St. Joseph, Missouri via the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad
(H&SJ).
• Kansas City, Kansas/Leavenworth, Kansas via the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railroad (LP&W) (later
called the Kansas Pacific) controlled initially by Thomas Ewing, Jr. and later by John C. Fremont.
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The principal advantages of Council Bluffs/Omaha were that it was well north of the Civil War fighting taking place
in Missouri, was the shortest route to South Pass break in the Rockies in Wyoming, and would follow a fertile river
that would encourage settlement. Missouri's advantages included that it had the only railroad to actually reach the
Missouri River on its western border (H&SJ), was more centrally located for lines coming up from Texas and could
offer a route servicing Denver, Colorado, the biggest city in the Great American Desert. In 1862 the closest rail lines
to Omaha/Council Bluffs were 150 miles (240 km) away and would take five years to reach Omaha.
Thomas C. Durant who was building the cross-Iowa railroad (the M&M) was literally banking that the Omaha route
would be chosen and began buying up land in Nebraska.
In 1857, Durant hired private citizen Abraham Lincoln to represent the M&M in litigation brought by steamboat
operators to dismantle Government Bridge, the first bridge across the Mississippi River. The bridge prevented
steamboats from passing underneath and was an obstruction of a public waterway. In August 1859 Lincoln at the
behest of M&M attorney Norman Judd traveled to Council Bluffs to inspect M&M facilities that were to be used to
secure a $3,000 loan Lincoln was to hold. On the visit Lincoln rode the SJ&H railroad and visited railroad locations
in Missouri and Kansas before going to Council Bluffs. During the visit Lincoln was to spend 2 hours with M&M
engineer Grenville M. Dodge at the Pacific House Hotel discussing the merits of starting the railroad in Council
Bluffs and was to visit Cemetery Hill there to look over the proposed route.[13]
Lincoln's ties to Council Bluffs were furthered strengthened by the fact that he had won the 1860 Republican
nomination on the third ballot when the Iowa delegation switched its vote to him.[14] In contrast, Lincoln was to get
only 10 percent of the Missouri vote in the 1860 Presidential Election.
While the Pacific Railroad Act was to award the eastern contract to the newly formed Union Pacific, it was left up to
then President Lincoln to formally choose the location for the railroad to start and Lincoln in 1862 was to follow the
advice of his former client.
The H&SJ and LP&W were not totally shut out of the contract though. The H&SJ was to be allowed to build a
feeder line from Atchison, Kansas, while the LP&W could build a feeder line out of Kansas City, Kansas. The feeder
lines were supposed to meet the Union Pacific main line somewhere around the 100th meridian west in central
Nebraska and the feeder lines were to get the same land grant incentives as the Union Pacific.
Thomas Durant and the Union Pacific
Main articles: Thomas C. Durant and Union Pacific Railroad
In contrast to the relatively straightforward arrangements for the
Central Pacific, the Union Pacific which was to ultimately build nearly
2/3 of the track was to be mired in controversy and scandals while its
controlling partner Thomas C. Durant got rich as he took advantage of
lax or non-existent government oversight during the Civil War.
The enabling legislation for the Union Pacific required that no partner
was to own more than 10 percent of the stock. However, the Union
Pacific had problems selling its stock. Durant enticed investors with a
scheme where he would put up the money for the stock if they would
just put their names on it. Then Durant wound up taking the stock from
the investors and was to end up controlling about half the stock of the
railroad.
Thomas Clark Durant
The initial construction of railroad went over land that Durant owned around Omaha. Being paid by the mile, the
railroad built oxbows of extraneous track never venturing further than 40 miles (64 km) from Omaha in the railroad's
first 2½ years.
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Durant manipulated market prices on his stocks by spreading rumours about which railroads were to be connected to
the Union Pacific. First he ran up the stock of his M&M Railroad while secretly buying stock in the depressed Cedar
Rapids and Missouri Railroad (CR&M), then running up CR&M stock with new plans to connect the Union Pacific
to it at which point he began buying back the M&M stock at depressed prices. The gambit is estimated to have raised
$5 million for his cohorts and him.[15]
Durant was to keep a low public profile in his machinations as he was only a vice president. He was to install a series
of respected men such as John Adams Dix as president of the railroad.
On July 4, 1865, the Union Pacific had not gone further than 40 miles (64 km) from Omaha—even as the Central
Pacific had been working away for 2½ years. With the end of the Civil War and increased government supervision in
the offing, Durant hired his former M&M engineer Grenville M. Dodge to build the railroad and the Union Pacific
began a mad dash.
Construction
The Jupiter, which carried Leland Stanford (one
of the "Big Four" owners of the Central Pacific)
and other railway officials to the Golden Spike
Ceremony.
Because of the nature of the way money was given to the companies
building the railroad, they were sometimes known to sabotage each
others railroads to claim that land as their own.[16] When they first
came close to meeting, they changed paths to be nearly parallel, so that
each company could claim subsidies from the government over the
same plot of land. Fed up with the fighting, Congress eventually
declared where and when the railways should meet.[16] Survey teams
closely followed by work crews from each railroad passed each other,
eager to lay as much track as possible. The leading Central Pacific road
crew set a record by laying 10 mi (16 km) of track in a single day,
commemorating the event with a signpost beside the track for passing
trains to see.
Laborers
The majority of the Union Pacific track was built by Irish laborers,[17] and veterans of both the Union and
Confederate armies. Brigham Young, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wished to see the
railroad support emigration and the population centers in Ogden and Salt Lake City, Utah. As the track approached
Utah Territory, he sought a labor contract with the Union Pacific. Under this completed contract, workgangs made
up almost entirely of Mormons built much of the Union Pacific track in the Utah territory including the difficult
section requiring extensive blasting and tunneling through the Weber River canyon. (Allen and Leonard,
pp. 328–329)
The Central Pacific's grade was constructed primarily by many
thousands of emigrant workers from China who were commonly
referred to at the time as "Celestials" and China as the "Celestial
Kingdom." Even though at first they were thought to be too weak or
fragile to do this type of work, after the first few days on which
Chinese were on the line, the decision was made to hire as many as
could be found in California (where most were independent gold
miners or in service industries such as laundries and kitchens). Many
more were imported from China. Most of the men received between
Chinese railroad workers greet a train on a snowy
day.
First Transcontinental Railroad
one and three dollars per day, but the workers arriving directly from China received much less. Eventually, they went
on strike and gained a small increase in salary.
Most of the work consisted of the laying of the rails. The track laying was divided up into various parts: one gang
laid rails on the ties, drove the spikes, and bolted the splice bars; at the same time, another gang distributed telegraph
poles and wire along the grade, while the cooks prepared dinner and the clerks busied themselves with accounts,
records, using telegraph wire to tap for more materials and supplies.[18] Almost all of the track work was done
manually, using shovels, picks, axes, black powder, two-wheeled dump carts, wheelbarrows, ropes, mules, and
horses,[19] while supply trains carried all the necessary material for the construction, which consisted of “ties, rails,
spikes, bolts, telegraph poles, wire, etc.”[18]
In addition to track laying (which typically employed approximately 25% of the labor force), the operation also
required the efforts of hundreds of tunnelers, explosive experts, bridge builders, blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers,
masons, surveyors, teamsters, telegraphers, and even cooks, to name just a few of the trades involved in construction
of the railroad.
Upon the completion of their work on the CPRR's portion of the Pacific Railroad, many Chinese workers moved on
to other railroad construction jobs including with the Central Pacific. Of those that left the company's employ, some
returned with their savings to their families in Canton while others sent to China for wives and settled in various
western communities as miners, laundrymen, and restaurateurs. The majority who remained in the United States,
however, returned to and settled in the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere along the Pacific coast.[20]
Central Pacific
On January 8, 1863, Governor Leland Stanford ceremoniously broke ground in Sacramento, California, to begin
construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. The Central Pacific made great progress along the Sacramento Valley.
However construction was slowed, first by the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, then by the mountains themselves and
most importantly by winter snowstorms. Consequently, the Central Pacific expanded its efforts to hire emigrant
laborers (many of whom were Chinese). Emigrants seemed to be more willing to tolerate the horrible conditions, and
progress continued. The increasing necessity for tunnelling then began to slow progress of the line yet again.
Tunnels were constructed by blasting the granite slopes using black powder (nitroglycerin was only used to construct
Summit Tunnel a.k.a. Tunnel No. 6) to bypass the difficulties of the snow. To carve a tunnel, one worker holds a
rock drill on granite, then two other workers swing eighteen-pound sledgehammers to chisel a hole. Much of the
tunnel construction was followed by deaths from snow slides and avalanches.[21]
The Chinese built 15 tunnels for Central Pacific, the longest of which, the summit tunnel, reached 1659 feet. They
were about 32 feet high, 16 feet wide.[22] Derricks at first were used to remove loose rocks then steam hoisting
machine replaced them to increase construction progress. The average daily progress was only 0.85 feet a day, which
was very slow,[22] or 1.18 feet daily according to historian George Kraus.[23] J. O. Wilder, a Central Pacific-Southern
Pacific employee, commented that “The Chinese were as steady, hard-working a set of men as could be found. With
the exception of a few whites at the west end of Tunnel No. 6, the laboring force was entirely composed of
Chinamen with white foremen. A single Irish foreman with a gang of 30 to 40 Chinese men generally constituted the
force at work at each end of a tunnel; of these, 12 to 15 worked on the heading, and the rest on the bottom removing
material. When a gang was small or the men needed elsewhere, the bottoms were worked with fewer men or stopped
so as to keep the headings going.”[23] The laborers usually worked three shifts of 8 hours each per day, while the
foremen worked in two shifts of 12 hours each, managing the laborers.[24]
Construction began again in earnest. Horace Hamilton Minkler, track foreman for the Central Pacific, laid the last
rail and tie before the Golden Spike was driven.[25]
9
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Union Pacific
The major investor in the Union Pacific was Thomas Clark Durant,[26]
who had made his stake money by smuggling Confederate cotton with
the aid of Grenville M. Dodge. Durant chose routes that would favor
places where he held land, and he announced connections to other lines
at times that suited his share dealings. He paid an associate to submit
the construction bid to another company he controlled, Crédit Mobilier,
manipulating the finances and government subsidies and making
himself another fortune. Durant hired Dodge as chief engineer and Jack
Casement as construction boss.
In the East, the progress started in Omaha, Nebraska, by the Union
Pacific Railroad proceeded very quickly because of the open terrain of
the Great Plains. This changed, however, as the work entered
Indian-held lands. The Native Americans saw the addition of the
railroad as a violation of their treaties with the United States. War
Grenville M. Dodge wearing a major general's
uniform
parties began to raid the moving labor camps that followed the
progress of the line. Union Pacific responded by increasing security
and hiring marksmen to kill American Bison, which were both a physical threat to trains and the primary food source
for many of the Plains Indians. The Native Americans then began killing laborers when they realized that the
so-called "Iron Horse" threatened their existence. Security measures were further strengthened, and progress on the
railroad continued.
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The Last Spike
Six years after the groundbreaking, laborers of the Central Pacific
Railroad from the west and the Union Pacific Railroad from the east
met at Promontory Summit, Utah. It was here on May 10, 1869, that
Stanford drove The Last Spike (or golden spike) which is now on
display at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, that joined the
rails of the transcontinental railroad. (A second "Last" Golden Spike is
also on display at the California State Railroad Museum in
Sacramento.[27]) In perhaps the world's first live mass-media event, the
hammers and spike were wired to the telegraph line so that each
hammer stroke would be heard as a click at telegraph stations
nationwide—the hammer strokes were missed, so the clicks were sent
by the telegraph operator. As soon as the ceremonial spike had been
replaced by an ordinary iron spike, a message was transmitted to both
the East Coast and West Coast that simply read, "DONE." The country
erupted in celebration upon receipt of this message. Travel from coast
to coast was reduced from six months or more to just one week.
Aftermath
Golden spike that was donated by the
governor of Arizona Territory. It is
one of four ceremonial spikes driven
at the completion (but is not the final
golden spike).
The Last Spike by Thomas Hill (1881)
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Railroad developments
When the golden spike was driven, the rail network was not yet
connected to the Atlantic or Pacific, but merely connected Omaha and
Sacramento. In November 1869 the Central Pacific finally connected
Sacramento to the east side of San Francisco Bay by rail at Oakland,
California, where freight and passengers completed their
transcontinental link to the city by ferry.
Display ads for the CPRR and UPRR the week
the rails were joined on May 19, 1869
The original route from the Central Valley to the Bay skirted the Delta
by heading south out of Sacramento through Stockton and crossing the
San Joaquin River at Mossdale, then climbed over the Altamont Pass
and reached the East Bay through Niles Canyon, then instead of
completing the rail connection via Santa Clara up the Peninsula to San
Francisco itself, the rights-of-way to which were already owned by
competing interests, entered Alameda and Oakland from the south
(roughly paralleling what would later become US Highway 50 and
later still Interstates 5, 205, and 580). A more direct route eventually
replaced this, crossing the Sacramento River and proceeding southwest
through Davis to Benicia, where it crossed the Carquinez Strait by
means of an enormous train ferry, then followed the shores of the San
Pablo and San Francisco bays to Richmond and Oakland (paralleling
US Highway 40 which ultimately became Interstate 80). In 1930 a rail
bridge across the Carquinez replaced the Benicia ferries.
Very early on the Central Pacific learned that it would have trouble
maintaining an open track in winter across the Sierras. At first they
tried plowing the road with special snowplows mounted on their steam
engines. When this was only partially successful, an extensive process
of building snow sheds over some of the track to protect it from deep
snows and avalanches was instituted. These eventually succeeded at
keeping the tracks clear for all but a few days of the year.[28]
UPRR & CPRR "Great American Over-Land
Route" Timetable cover 1881
Both railroads soon instituted extensive upgrade projects to build better
bridges, viaducts, dugways, heavier duty rails, stronger ties, better road
beds etc. The original track had often been laid as fast as possible with
only secondary attention to maintenance and longevity. Getting the
subsidies was initially the primary incentive; upgrades of all kinds
were routinely required in the coming years.
The Union Pacific would not connect Omaha to Council Bluffs until completing the Union Pacific Missouri River
Bridge in 1873.
With the end of the Civil War, the competing railroads coming from Missouri took advantage of their initial strategic
advantage for a building boom. The H&SJ finished the Hannibal Bridge which was the first bridge to cross the
Missouri River in July 1869 in Kansas City. This in turn connected to Kansas Pacific trains going from Kansas City
to Denver which had built the Denver Pacific Railway connecting to the Union Pacific. In August 1870 the Kansas
Pacific laid the last spike connecting to the Denver Pacific line at Strasburg, Colorado and the first true Atlantic to
Pacific United States railroad was completed.
Kansas City's head start in connecting to a true transcontinental railroad was to contribute to it rather than Omaha
being the dominant rail center west of Chicago.
First Transcontinental Railroad
13
The Kansas Pacific became part of the Union Pacific in 1880.
On June 4, 1876, an express train called the Transcontinental Express arrived in San Francisco via the First
Transcontinental Railroad only 83 hours and 39 minutes after it left from New York City. Only ten years before the
same journey would have taken months over land or weeks on ship.
The Central Pacific was absorbed by the Southern Pacific in 1885. The Union Pacific initially took over the Southern
Pacific in 1901 but was forced by the U.S. Supreme Court to divest it because of monopoly concerns. The Union
Pacific completed the take-over of the Southern Pacific in 1996.
Having been bypassed with the completion of the Lucin Cutoff in 1904, the Promontory Summit rails were pulled up
in 1942 to be recycled for the World War II effort. This process began with a ceremonial "undriving" at the golden
spike location.[29] In 1957, Congress authorized the Golden Spike National Historic Site. On May 10, 2006, on the
anniversary of the driving of the spike, Utah announced that its state quarter design would be a representation of the
driving of the spike.
Crédit Mobilier
Despite the transcontinental success and millions in government
subsidies, the Union Pacific faced bankruptcy less than three years
after the golden spike as details surfaced about overcharges Crédit
Mobilier had billed Union Pacific for the formal building of the
railroad. The scandal hit epic proportions in the United States
presidential election, 1872 which saw the re-election of Ulysses S.
Grant and became the biggest scandal of the Gilded Age. It would not
be resolved until the congressman who was supposed to have reined in
its excesses but instead wound up profiting from it was dead.
Durant had initially come up with the scheme to have Crédit Mobilier
subcontract to do the actual track work. Durant gained control of the
company after buying out employee Herbert Hoxie for $10,000. Under
Durant's guidance the company was charging Union Pacific often twice
or more the customary cost for track work (thus in effect paying
himself to build the railroad). The process was to mire down Union
Pacific work.
Oakes Ames
Lincoln asked Massachusetts Congressman Oakes Ames, who was on the railroad committee, to clean things up and
get the railroad moving. Ames got his brother Oliver Ames, Jr. named president of the Union Pacific and Ames
himself became president of Crédit Mobiler.[30]
Ames in turn gave stock options to other politicians while at the same time continuing the lucrative overcharges. The
scandal was to implicate Vice President Schuyler Colfax (who was cleared) and future President James Garfield
among others.
The scandal broke in 1872 when the New York Sun published correspondence between Henry S. McComb and Ames
detailing the scheme. In the ensuing Congressional investigation, it was recommended that Ames be expelled from
Congress but this was reduced to a censure and Ames died within three months.
Durant was to leave the Union Pacific and a new rail baron Jay Gould was to become the dominant stockholder. As a
result of the Panic of 1873 Jay Gould was able to pick up bargains, among them the control of the Union Pacific
Railroad and Western Union also fell under his control.[31]
First Transcontinental Railroad
Visible remains
Visible remains of the historic line are still easily located—hundreds of miles are still in service today, especially
through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and canyons in Utah and Wyoming. While the original rail has long since been
replaced because of age and wear, and the roadbed upgraded and repaired, the lines generally run on top of the
original, handmade grade. Vista points on Interstate 80 through California's Truckee Canyon provide a panoramic
view of many miles of the original Central Pacific line and of the snow sheds which make winter train travel safe and
practical.
In areas where the original line has been bypassed and abandoned, primarily in Utah, the road grade is still obvious,
as are numerous cuts and fills, especially the Big Fill a few miles east of Promontory. The sweeping curve which
connected to the east end of the Big Fill now passes a Thiokol rocket research and development facility.
Current passenger service
Amtrak's California Zephyr, a daily passenger service from Emeryville, California (San Francisco Bay Area) to
Chicago, uses the First Transcontinental Railroad from Sacramento to central Nevada. Because this rail line currently
operates in a directional running setup across most of Nevada, the California Zephyr will switch to the Central
Corridor at either Winnemucca or Wells.[32]
Popular culture
The joining together of the Union Pacific line with the Central Pacific line in May 1869 at Promontory Summit,
Utah, was one of the major inspirations for French writer Jules Verne's book entitled Around the World in Eighty
Days, which was published in the year 1873.[33]
The feat is depicted in various movies, including the 1939 film Union Pacific, starring Joel McCrea and Barbara
Stanwyck and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, which depicts the fictional Central Pacific investor Asa Barrows
obstructing attempts by the Union Pacific from reaching Ogden, Utah.
While not exactly accurate, John Ford's 1924 silent movie The Iron Horse captures the fervent nationalism that drove
public support for the project. Among the cooks serving the film's cast and crew between shots were some of the
Chinese laborers who actually worked on the Central Pacific section of the railroad.
The 1962 film How the West Was Won has a whole segment devoted to the construction; one of the movie's most
famous scenes, filmed in Cinerama, is of a buffalo stampede over the railroad.
Kristiana Gregory's book The Great Railroad Race (part of the "Dear America" series) is written as a diary by Libby
West, who chronicles the end of the building of the railroad and the excitement which engulfed the country at the
time.
Graham Masterton's 1981 novel A Man of Destiny (published in the UK as Railroad) is a fictionalised account of the
line's construction.
In the 1999 Will Smith film, Wild Wild West, the joining ceremony is the setting of an assassination attempt on then
U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant by the film's antagonist Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless.
The building of the railway is covered by the 2004 BBC documentary series Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
in episode 6, "The Line".
The series American Experience also documents the railway in the episode titled "Transcontinental Railroad".
The main character in The Claim (2000) is a surveyor for the Central Pacific Railroad, and the film is partially about
the effort of a frontier mayor to have the railroad routed through his town.
The popular British Television show Doctor Who featured the Transcontinental Railroad in a BBC audio book
entitled The Runaway Train, read by Matt Smith and written for audio by Oli Smith.
14
First Transcontinental Railroad
The children's book Ten Mile Day by Mary Ann Fraser tells the story of the final, record setting push by the Central
Pacific in which they set a record by laying 10 miles (16 km) of track in a single day on April 28, 1869 to settle a
$10,000 bet.
The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad provides the setting for the AMC television series Hell on Wheels.
Thomas Durant is a regular character in the series and is portrayed by actor Colm Meaney.
Notes
[1] Executive Order of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, Fixing the Point of Commencement of the Pacific Railroad at Council
Bluffs, Iowa. dated March 7, 1864. (http:/ / cprr. org/ Museum/ Lincoln_1864. html) (38th Congress, 1st Session SENATE Ex. Doc. No. 27)
[2] Cooper, Bruce C., "Riding the Transcontinental Rails: Overland Travel on the Pacific Railroad 1865–1881" (http:/ / cprr. org/ Museum/
Riding_the_Rails_Intro. html) (2005), Polyglot Press, Philadelphia ISBN 1-4115-9993-4. p. 11
[3] Cooper, Bruce Clement(Ed), The Classic Western American Railroad Routes. New York: Chartwell Books(US) / Bassingbourn: Worth Press
(UK); 2010. ISBN 978-0-7858-2573-9; ISBN 0-7858-2573-8; BINC: 3099794. pp 44–45
[4] "Union Pacific Map" (http:/ / www. cprr. org/ Museum/ Maps/ _traveler's_rr_guide_1882. html). Central Pacific Railroad Museum. .
Retrieved 2009-02-05.
[5] "Central Pacific Railroad Map" (http:/ / www. cprr. org/ Museum/ Maps/ _crofutt_1870_map. html). Central Pacific Railroad Museum. .
Retrieved 2009-02-05.
[6] F.V. Hayden and Daniel M. Davis. "Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery, Photographic Collection" (http:/ / library. usu. edu/ Specol/
photoarchive/ p0019/ p00190019. html). Utah State University Special Collections and Archives. . Retrieved 2007-01-06.
[7] PBS American Experience - Transcontinental Railroad - Whitney Biography (http:/ / www. pbs. org/ wgbh/ amex/ tcrr/ peopleevents/ e_early.
html)
[8] In Memoriam, Theodore D. Judah, Died November 2, 1863 (http:/ / cprr. org/ Museum/ Ephemera/ Judah Memoriam BCC. html)
[9] Map of Land Grants to Railroads (http:/ / memory. loc. gov/ cgi-bin/ displayPhoto. pl?path=/ award/ mhsdalad/ 120000/ &
topImages=120033r. jpg& topLinks=120033v. jpg& displayProfile=1) accessed Jan 29, 2009
[10] The Silent Spikes: Chinese Laborers and the Construction of North American Railroads, comp. and ed. Huang Annian, trans. Zhang Juguo
(n.p.: China Intercontinental Press, 2006), p. 36.
[11] Ambrose, Stephen, 2000, p. 377
[12] Ambrose, Stephen, 2000, p. 376
[13] Abrahamlincolnclassroom.org - Abraham Lincoln and Iowa (http:/ / www. abrahamlincolnsclassroom. org/ Library/ newsletter.
asp?ID=45& CRLI=125)
[14] PBS American Experience - Transcontinental Railroad - Transcript (http:/ / www. pbs. org/ wgbh/ amex/ tcrr/ filmmore/ pt. html)
[15] PBS American Experience - Transcontinental Railroad - Durant Biography (http:/ / www. pbs. org/ wgbh/ amex/ tcrr/ peopleevents/
p_durant. html)
[16] Perkins, J. R. (2003). "CENTRAL PACIFIC–UNION PACIFIC RACE" (http:/ / www. encyclopedia. com/ doc/ 1G2-3401800718. html).
Encyclopedia.com. . Retrieved 2010-04-24.
[17] Collins, R.M. (2010). Irish Gandy Dancer: A tale of building the Transcontinental Railroad. Seattle: Create Space. pp. 198.
ISBN 978-1-4528-2631-8.
[18] Alta California (San Francisco) (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ archive/ gosp/ research/ track_laying. html), November 9, 1868.
[19] Kraus, High Road to Promontory, p. 110.; Robert West Howard, The Great Iron Trail: The Story of the First Transcontinental Railroad
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1962), p. 231.
[20] Kraus, George (1969). "Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Central Pacific" (http:/ / cprr. org/ Museum/ Last_Spike_is_Driven.
pdf). Utah Historical Quarterly 37 (1): 41–57. .
[21] Ambrose, Nothing Like It in the World, p. 201 and p. 160
[22] Tzu-Kuei, "Chinese Workers and the First Transcontinental Railroad of the United States of America", p. 128.
[23] Kraus, "Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Central Pacific," p. 49.
[24] John R. Gillis, "TUNNELS OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD." (http:/ / cprr. org/ Museum/ Tunnels. html) Van Nostrand's Eclectic
Engineering Magazine, January 5, 1870, p. 418-423,
[25] CPRR Discussion Group (http:/ / discussion. cprr. net/ 2005/ 09/ james-barkleys-notes-about-horace. html)
[26] "People & Events: Thomas Clark Durant (1820–1885)" (http:/ / www. pbs. org/ wgbh/ amex/ tcrr/ peopleevents/ p_durant. html). American
Experience: Transcontinental Railroad. PBS. 2003. . Retrieved 2007-05-10.
[27] "See the "Lost" Golden Spike at the Museum" (http:/ / www. csrmf. org/ events-exhibits/ whats-new/
see-the-golden-lost-spike-at-the-museum) California State Railroad Museum
[28] Central Pacific snow sheds (http:/ / www. cprr. org/ Museum/ Summit_Tunnel_1999/ index. html) accessed January 28, 2009
[29] United States National Park Service (2002-09-28). "Promontory After May 10, 1869" (http:/ / www. cr. nps. gov/ history/ online_books/ hh/
40/ hh40r. htm). . Retrieved 2007-05-10.
[30] People & Events: Oakes Ames (1804–1873) - American Experience Transcontinental Railroad (http:/ / www. pbs. org/ wgbh/ amex/ tcrr/
peopleevents/ p_ames. html)
15
First Transcontinental Railroad
[31] Panic on Wall Street: A History of America's Financial Disasters, p.193, Robert Sobel, Beard Books, 1999, ISBN 978-1-893122-46-8
[32] "Eureka County, Yucca Mountain Existing Transportation Corridor Study" (http:/ / www. yuccamountain. org/ impact_report/ section3.
htm). Eureka County – Yucca Mountain Project. 2005. . Retrieved 2010-05-08.
[33] William Butcher (translation and introduction). Around the World in Eighty Days, Oxford Worlds Classics, 1995, Introduction.
References
• Allen, James B.; Glen M. Leonard (1976). The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book
Company.
• Ambrose, Stephen E. (2000). Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad
1863–1869. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84609-8.
• Bain, David Haward (1999). Empire Express; Building the first Transcontinental Railroad. Viking Penguin.
ISBN 0-670-80889-X.
• Beebe, Lucius (1969). The Central Pacific & The Southern Pacific Railroads: Centennial Edition. Howell-North.
ISBN 0-8310-7034-X.
• Cooper, Bruce C., "Riding the Transcontinental Rails: Overland Travel on the Pacific Railroad 1865–1881"
(http://cprr.org/Museum/Riding_the_Rails_Intro.html) (2005), Polyglot Press, Philadelphia ISBN
1-4115-9993-4
• Cooper, Bruce Clement (Ed), "The Classic Western American Railroad Routes". New York: Chartwell
Books/Worth Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7858-2573-9; ISBN 0-7858-2573-8; BINC: 3099794.
• Lee, Willis T., Ralph W. Stone, and Hoyt S. Gale (1916). Guidebook of the Western United States, Part B. The
Overland Route (http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/geology/publications/bul/612/index.htm).
USGS Bulletin 612.
External links
• "I Hear the Locomotives: The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad" (http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/
i-hear-locomotives-impact-transcontinental-railroad) Lesson plan for grades 9-12 from National Endowment for
the Humanities
• Golden Spike National Historical Site in Utah (http://www.nps.gov/gosp/)
• Route map at the Library of Congress (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/
gmd:@FILREQ(@field(SUBJ+@od1(Continental+Railway+))+@FIELD(COLLID+rrmap)))
• Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum (http://CPRR.org)
• Union Pacific Railroad History (http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/)
• The Transcontinental Railroad (http://bushong.net/dawn/about/college/ids100/)
• Pacific Railway Act and related resources at the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/
ourdocs/PacificRail.html)
• Collections Canada: History of the Grand Trunk Railroad (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/confederation/
023001-2997-e.html)
• Chinese-American Contribution to transcontinental railroad (http://cprr.org/Museum/Chinese.html)
• Abandoned route of the transcontinental railroad in Utah (with map) (http://www.abandonedrails.com/article.
asp?id=202)
• Booknotes interview with David Howard Bain on Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad,
March 5, 2000. (http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/155004-1/David+Haward+Bain.aspx)
• Linda Hall Library's Transcontinental Railroad educational site with free, full-text access to 19th century
American railroad periodicals (http://railroad.lindahall.org)
16
Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
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File:Great Overland Route Timetable Cover 1881.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Great_Overland_Route_Timetable_Cover_1881.JPG License: unknown
Contributors: Central Pacific Railroad; Union Pacific Railroad Rand, McNally & Co., Printers and Engravers, Chicago (original engravings) Digital reconstruction & restoration by the uploader
Image:Oakes Ames - Brady-Handy.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oakes_Ames_-_Brady-Handy.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Davepape,
Ecummenic, Edelseider, Frank C. Müller, Howcheng, Kilom691, Kramer Associates, Longbow4u
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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