Transportation History of the Transcontinental Railroad

Written by Freight Capital Author: Randy Goddard

Before the Transcontinental Railroad system was built, it cost $1,000 to travel from one end of the country to the other. Compared to 2002 U.S. dollars, the value of that would be $19,380. After the railroad was built, that would drop to $100, or $1940. Before the railroad was built, travelers had one of two options – travel by wagon or by ship around South America. Besides the cost, the trip could take up to four months or longer.

It’s easy to see why, after the first use of the steam locomotive in the 1830s, the dream emerged to link both sides of the continent together. But the dream languished until spurred on by the discovery of gold in California in 1849. By 1850, plans were being drawn and decisions made.

The first problems with the transcontinental railroad planning began almost at its inception. Disagreement arose on the route the railway system was to take. As this was prior to the Civil War, the U.S. was divided by the factions in the North and South. The Southern states wanted the railway system through the south, and the Northern states wanted a northern route.

All of that changed after the South seceded from the Union in 1861. The U.S. Congress chose a route beginning in Nebraska and ending in California. The project begun after President Lincoln signed the bill in 1862, but it proceeded slowly for the next seven years. The Central Pacific railroad began its route out of Sacramento, while the Union Pacific headed west from Omaha, Nebraska. The bill signed by Lincoln allowed the two railroad companies ownership of the land on which the railway would traverse and provided funds through bonds.

In 1863, construction finally began – and both companies competed with each other to see who could lay the most railroad track. From the beginning, the Central Pacific Railroad faced many obstacles. Out of money, it could not afford to build the first miles of track out of Sacramento. All of its materials, shipped around South America, took months to reach the construction sites – delaying progress.

The hardest breach was passing through the Sierra Nevada mountain range and its granite on the eastern edge of California. But help arrived in the form of Chinese immigrants, who were strong and able workers with experience in explosives, being those who first discovered gunpowder. Progress though the Sierra Nevada slowed because of the mountainous route and proceeded at a pace of eight inches a day.

On the eastern side of the railroad, the Union Pacific had no timber – which meant that it had to be shipped up the Mississippi River. Add to that the constant attacks on the railroad workers, their settlements and their cattle by the local Native Americans. Workers were fearful and often left their posts. The weather played a role in the progress of the railroad between the bitter cold of winter and the blistering heat of summer.

Progress was slow on both sides of the railway system. But by the summer of 1867, the Central Pacific had broken through the granite of the Sierra Nevada and the Union Pacific was in Wyoming. Both were headed to Utah, but President Grant said that he would withhold governmental funding until both companies agreed on a common meeting point.

Just 690 railway-miles from Sacramento, Promontory Summit in Utah was decided as the place where the railway would join. The Union Pacific traveled almost twice the distance of the Central Pacific railroad to get there, laying 1,086 miles of track from Omaha. The “Golden Spike” was hammered in place linking the two tracks on May 10, 1869, nearly 39 years after the first wisps of the dream.

After the railroad tracks were linked, Americans began to experience a “continental” America. Travel began five days after the first spike was laid. Two fares were offered, the second class fare at $60, or ($1,160) and about $100 ($1940) for first class. Sleeper cars were available at a rate of about $2 ($38) between San Francisco and Promontory, Utah. Freight cars were also added to the trains – and local train stations printed stagecoach connections at key railroad terminals. The trip would take a week to cross the United States, where it once took nearly four months.

The completion of the transcontinental railway resulted in over $50 million worth of freight shipped from one side of the nation to the next on a yearly basis, or nearly $1 billion dollars in 2002 dollars. Besides being able to ship across country, the railroad also opened up opportunities for foreign goods to ship across the nation from either side. This meant Asian goods could easily travel to the east and European goods found their way west. With the building of the first continental railway, new areas and regions of the country were open to production and industry, and the American dream began in earnest. America experienced a production boom with its first “technological” corridor.

To find out more about the history of the transcontinental railway in the United States, consult any one of these links:

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