Final Paper Railroad

Fanny Varain
Period 6
The First Transcontinental Railroad

The First Transcontinental Railroad was a 1,907-mile railroad line constructed

between 1863 and 1869 across the western United States to connect the Pacific coast at

San Francisco Bay with the existing Eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa. It

was built by three private companies: the original Western Pacific Railroad Company, the

Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, and the Union Pacific Railroad

Company. The road established a mechanized transcontinental transportation network

that revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West by bringing these

western states and territories firmly and profitably into the "Union" and making goods

and transportation much quicker, cheaper, and more flexible from coast to coast.

With strong congressional support and under the direction of the Department of

War the Pacific Railroad Surveys were an extensive series of explorations of the

American West to explore possible routes for a transcontinental railroad through North

America, between 1853 and 1855. The expeditions included surveyors, scientists, and

artists and resulted in data covering at least 400,000 square miles. Published by the

United States War Department from 1855 to 1860, the surveys contained significant

material on natural history. In addition to describing possible routes, these surveys also

reported on the geology, zoology, botany of the land as well as provided ethnographic

descriptions of the Native peoples encountered during the surveys. After years of study

the construction and operation of a transcontinental railroad line was authorized by the

Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864. The Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific

Railroad, were chosen by Congress to build and operate the first transcontinental railroad

from the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Sacramento, California and to the

San Francisco Bay.