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Westward Expansion: The Transcontinental Railroad

Lilliana Kanocz

Scott

1 March 2022

Period 5

About

The Transcontinental Railroad

Works Cited

Clemens, Mark. "First transcontinental railroad." Cobblestone, vol. 31, no. 5, May-June 2010, pp. 24+. Gale In Context: Middle School, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A228516450/MSIC?u=gran68706&sid=bookmark-MSIC&xid=148c94a0. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.

"The Effect of Manifest Destiny on Native Americans." Gale Middle School Online Collection, Gale, 2021. Gale In Context: Middle School, link.gale.com/apps/doc/YUQMYJ588538960/MSIC?u=gran68706&sid=bookmark-MSIC&xid=d992c9a5. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.

"Transcontinental Railroad." Gale Middle School Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context: Middle School, link.gale.com/apps/doc/THXYKE699762331/MSIC?u=gran68706&sid=bookmark-MSIC&xid=b3a22b33. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022.

PBS, Rocky Mountain. “Transcontinental Railroad Timeline | American Experience | PBS.” Pbs.org, 2019, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tcrr-timeline/.

Synopsis

The Transcontinental Railroad was a hand-built railroad that reached from America's east to west coast. When the railroad was finished in 1869, was the first time in history that the entire country of America was connected with a single rail. The Transcontinental Railroad was America’s first technological corridor.

The Workers

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted

The Workers

  • The transcontinental railroad was built in six years
  • Many of the workers were Chinese men who couldn't get jobs otherwise.
  • In 1867, Chinese workers strike for better wages and shorter hours. As a result, food, supplies, and communications were shut off from the Chinese camps. Eventually, the Chinese went back to work under the same wages and hours.
  • The railroad was built almost entirely by hand. Workers hammered spikes into the mountain's stone, filled the holes with gunpowder, and blasted through the rock.
  • Ignoring the crucial role Chinese immigrants played in constructing the California infrastructure, Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, banning further immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for a period of ten years. Congress will extend this Act in 1892, and again indefinitely in 1904.
  • There were 1,200 deaths amongst workers due to work hazards and sickness.

Timeline of the Transcontinental Railroad

1869

1862

The first Transcontinental Railroad was completed.

In 1867, Chinese workers strike for better wages and shorter hours. As a result, food, supplies, and communications were shut off from the Chinese camps. Eventually, the Chinese went back to work under the same wages and hours.

Congress passes and Lincoln signs the Pacific Railroad Bill

The bill grants each enterprise 6,400 acres of land and $48,000 in government bonds per mile built. It does not designate a meeting point for the lines.

Timeline

1861

1867

A man named Judah goes to Washington with maps and profiles appropriate for approving the Central Pacific Railroad company.

A group of Cheyenne warriors bend the rails and pull up the tracks in Nebraska. This damage causes a derailed work train which the warriors burn and loot after killing every worker but one, who escaped injured.

1864- 1865

1868

1864: Congress passes a revised Pacific Railroad Bill, which doubles the land grant and removed limitations on personal stock ownership.

1865: The civil war ends.

The Transcontinental Railroad was completed. As a result, a golden spike was driven into the ground. The golden spike is a ceremonial 17.6 karat gold spike driven into the ground by Leland Stanford to join the rails of Central and Union Pacific railroad.

Impacts

Impact

Positive Effects:

  • The railroad was completed in 1869. It encouraged settling, trade, and made traveling much easier and less cheap. Because of this, the railroad made the west less isolated from the rest of the country, alongside the world.
  • The railroad caused many production booms, making trading from east to west much easier. It also opened trading from all of America to Asian countries. These shipments included Japanese teas, one of the first things shipped from California to the eastern coast.
  • Within a decade of the railroad’s completion, nearly $50 million worth of traded items were shipped from coast to coast every year.
  • Americans could travel across the continent in a matter of days.
  • Dramatic Increase in trade
  • Manifest destiny ultimately caused the United States to spread across the width of North America. This provided the nation with a large territory and many natural resources.

Negative Effects:

  • White settlers started to fight with Native Americans. The Native Americans were forced into reservations within a matter of decades.
  • The train encouraged the slaughter of the animals the Native Americans were so dependent upon, millions of which were buffalo, whose hides were shipped to the east.
  • Ignoring the crucial role Chinese immigrants played in constructing the California infrastructure, Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, banning further immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States for a period of ten years. Congress will extend this Act in 1892, and again indefinitely in 1904.
  • Manifest destiny upset Native American people throughout the United States.
  • The concept of manifest destiny called for Americans to spread the borders of their country across North America to the Pacific Ocean.
  • Native American tribes were eventually forced to live on reservations. These reservations became smaller as Americans continued moving westward.

Miguel A. Otero

Miguel A. Otero

The Railroad could have gone through the southern states of America. Miguel A. Otero was a director of the Maxwell Land Grant and Railroad Company. He was also a director of the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad and he first terminal of the Santa Fe Railroad was named Otero in his honor. In congress, Otero's effort went towards building the railroad through New Mexico, giving promise to the state's future. By doing so, he aligned himself with other southern states that favored a southern route for the railroad. As a result of Otero's influence, New Mexico legislated a slave code in 1859. President Lincoln offered the post of minister to Spain to Otero, but Otero declined it because he wanted the nomination of secretary of the Territory of New Mexico, but the U.S. Senate did not confirm him because of his political views. The railroad never went through the southern route he wanted it to, and Otero died in 1882 at the age of 53 due to poor health.

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