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transcontinental railroad

transcontinental railroad in U.S. history, rail connection with the Pacific coast. In 1845, Asa Whitney presented to Congress a plan for the federal government to subsidize the building of a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific. The settlement of the Oregon boundary in 1846, the acquisition of western territories from Mexico in 1848, and the discovery of gold in California (1849) increased support for the project; in 1853, Congress appropriated funds to survey various proposed routes. Rivalry over the route was intense, however, and when Senator Stephen Douglas introduced (1854) his Kansas-Nebraska Act , intended to win approval for a line from Chicago, the ensuing sectional controversy between North and South forced a delay in the plans. During the Civil War, a Republican-controlled Congress enacted legislation (July 1, 1862) providing for construction of a transcontinental line. The law provided that the railroad be built by two companies; each received federal land grants of 10 alternate sections per mile on both sides of the line (the amount was doubled in 1864) and a 30-year government loan for each mile of track constructed. In 1863 the Union Pacific RR began construction from Omaha, Nebr., while the Central Pacific broke ground at Sacramento, Calif. The two lines met at Promontory Summit, Utah, and on May 10, 1869, a golden spike joined the two railways, thus completing the first transcontinental railroad. Others followed. Three additional lines were finished in 1883: the Northern Pacific RR stretched from Lake Superior to Portland, Oreg.; the Santa Fe extended from Atchison, Kans., to Los Angeles; and the Southern Pacific connected Los Angeles with New Orleans. A fifth line, the Great Northern, was completed in 1893. Each of those companies received extensive grants of land, although none obtained government loans. The promise of land often resulted in shoddy construction that only later was repaired, and scandals, such as Crédit Mobilier (see Crédit Mobilier of America ), were not infrequent. The transcontinental railroads immeasurably aided the settling of the west and hastened the closing of the frontier. They also brought rapid economic growth as mining, farming, and cattle-raising developed along the main lines and their branches.

Bibliography: See J. Grodinsky, Transcontinental Railway Strategy, 1869-1893 (1962); R. W. Howard, The Great Iron Trail (1962); L. M. Beebe, The Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads (1963); G. Hogg, Union Pacific: The Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad (1967, repr. 1970); C. E. Ames, Pioneering the Union Pacific (1969); J. J. Stewart, The Iron Trail to the Golden Spike (1969).

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	Riding the Transcontinental Rails: Overland Travel on the Pacific Railroad, 1865-1881.(PRODUCTION, INDUSTRY, COMMERCE)(Book Review) Magazine article from: Reference & Research Book News; 8/1/2005; 174 words ; HE2763 2004-026006 1-4115-9993-4 Riding the transcontinental rails; overland travel on the Pacific Railroad, 1865-1881. Title main entry. Ed. by Bruce C. Cooper. Polyglot Press, [c]2005 445 p. $22.95 (pa) In 1869 an journalist describes... Read more
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	ISDN users invited to join in network "golden splice". (1992 Transcontinental ISDN Project; Integrated Services Digital Network) (ISDN Forum) (Column) Magazine article from: Communications News; 8/1/1992; ; 507 words ; ...the seven regional Bell operating companies. TRIP is the Transcontinental ISDN Project, a week-long series of events Nov. 16-20 in...Jacobson says, is to bring to mind the golden spike driven by railroads in the 19th century, physically linking the nation. The... Read more
	Drawing a new national railroad map. (Watching Washington) (Column) Magazine article from: Railway Age; 10/1/1994; ; 587 words ; ...Creation of one or more true transcontinental railroads? There's at least one...won't until there are transcontinental railroads that simply won't have...case for creation of a transcontinental railroad, just as nobody has made... Read more
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	Australia's missing link is bridged.(world perspective)(Alice Springs-Darwin railroad) Magazine article from: Railway Age; 3/1/2004; ; 536 words ; ...new 882-mile Alice Springs-Darwin railroad opened in January, about five months...planned, completing a south north transcontinental railway across Australia's Outback...line connects with the existing railroad at Alice Springs, which runs south to Tarcoola, the junction with the transcontinental ... Read more
	The road traveled, the road ahead UP at 140.(Union Pacific Railroad Co.) Magazine article from: Railway Age; 10/1/2002; ; 700+ words ; ...imagination as the creation of a transcontinental railroad by a stroke of President Abraham...witnessed by any other major U.S. railroad, namely because it has won...While other big North American railroads are cutting back on capital... Read more
	The Pennsylvania railroad photographs of William H. Rau. Magazine article from: The Magazine Antiques; 3/1/2002; ; 700+ words ; ...Mediterrance. (3) Closer to home, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1858 sponsored a promotional tour of its routes...West Virginia, becoming thereby the first American railroad to promote its commercial interests through the visual...facilitate the mission, the B & 0 turned a special railroad car ... Read more
	Joining forces.(CSX Transportation Inc., Union Pacific Railroad Co.)(Brief Article) Magazine article from: Frozen Food Digest; 12/1/2005; 99 words ; Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and CSX Transportation are joining forces to offer a transcontinental, 55-car train of new refrigerated boxcars that will travel from Wallula WA to Albany NY in just over five days. According to UP... Read more

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	transcontinental Book article from: The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English ...x2C8;nentl; ˌtranz- / • adj. (esp. of a railroad line) crossing a continent. ∎  extending across or relating to two or more continents: a transcontinental radio audience. • n. Can. a transcontinental railroad or train. DERIVATIVES: trans·con·ti·... Read more
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