Moving the New Nation by Rail

You have a new country that spans thousands of miles from the Atlantic to Pacific Oceans. You also have acquired new territories that are prime areas to be for development. But the biggest problem facing the United States in these early years was how to connect the population centers of the east to the new territories of the west. The answer was to create the first transcontinental railroad.

In 1862, the United States government approved a series of acts that provided for a railway to span the width of the country. The Pacific Railroad Acts provided for land to place the railway and for means to create the railroad. To create the transcontinental railroad, the government commissioned companies to build the railroad. The Central Pacific Railway would build westward, and the Union Pacific would build eastward.

The building of the railway began in 1863, and was completed on May 10, 1869 when the last spike was driven at Promontory Summit in Utah. With the completion of the first transcontinental railway, it provided an easier access from east to west to allow people to settle in the areas. Traveling by rail was easier and safer then previous journeys by horseback or covered wagon. The railway and subsequent additions allowed the western portion of the United States to be growing rapidly.

To learn more about rail travel in the United States and the first transcontinental railway, please feel free to look over the following information and share with other people looking at the rail history of the U.S.

• Early American Railroads
• History of Railroads and Maps
• Development of U.S. Railroads
• Digital History by Era
• U.S. Territorial Expansion
• The “Impossible Railroad”
• Westward Expansion Summary
• Western Expansion Reform
• Western Expansion and the Railroads
• Library of Congress Pacific Railroad Act
• The Pacific Railroad Act by PBS
• Pacific Railroad Acts
• Pacific Railway Act of 1862 Summary
• Union Pacific History and Photos
• Central Pacific Railroad Museum
• Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads
• Brief History of the Pacific Railway
• Building the Transcontinental Railroad
• Transcontinental Railroad Timeline
• Building the Transcontinental Railroad
• The First Transcontinental Railroad
• Completing the Transcontinental Railroad
• Driving the Last Spike
• Transcontinental Railroad Lesson Plans
• The First Transcontinental Railroad
• Timeline of the First Transcontinental Railroad
• Transcontinental Railroad: Mark Twain on the Railroad
• The Transcontinental Railroad Information
• Railroad Quiz
• Immigration, Railroads and the West