Upload
dewitt
View
40
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
“The Iron Road”. 1883 – American Railway Association divides U.S . into 4 time zones. 1862 – Pacific Railway Act Union Pacific Central Pacific 1865 – 35,000 miles of track 1900 – 200,000 + miles. Transcontinental Railroad. Headed west from Omaha, NE in 1865 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
“The Iron Road”
1883 – American Railway Association divides U.S. into 4 time zones
1862 – Pacific Railway Act Union Pacific Central Pacific
1865 – 35,000 miles of track
1900 – 200,000+ miles
Transcontinental Railroad
Headed west from Omaha, NE in 1865Blizzards, scorching heat, hostile American IndiansLabor, money, & engineering problemsIrish immigrants, failed miners & farmers, ex-
convicts, Civil War veterans10,000 workersHell On Wheels
Union Pacific
Headed east from Sacramento, CA“Big Four” – Leland Stanford, Charley Crocker, Mark
Hopkins, Collis P. HuntingdonHired 10,000 Chinese workers - $1/dayAll equipment shipped from eastern U.S.Had to blast tunnels through solid mountains
Central Pacific
Central Pacific Railway
1 mile of track – 400 rails, each rail took 10 spikesCP – Laid 688 miles of trackUP – 1,086 miles
“The two trains pulled up facing each other, each crowded with workmen. . . . The officers and invited guests formed on each side of the track. . . . Prayer was offered; a number of spikes were driven in the two adjoining rails . . . and thus the two roads were wedded into one great trunk line from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
— How We Built the Union Pacific Railway, 1910
Promontory Summit, UT – May 10, 1869
“The Last Spike”
First big business in U.S.Large railroad companies connected hundreds of
small railroadsSpent huge $ on steel, coal, timberFreight prices ↓ by half between 1860 & 1900
Railroad Growth
Federal govt. gave land grants to railroadsRailroad entrepreneurs became rich – Cornelius
Vanderbilt & Jay Gould, called robber baronsInvestors bribed members of CongressCrédit Mobilier Scandal – 1872
Members of Congress buy shares at well below market price Letter appears in New York Sun listing Congressmen
Great Northern Railroad succeeds w/o land grants or corruption
Railroads & Corruption
Exit Slip: How do you think the Transcontinental Railroad will transform the nation?