is the transcontinental railroad still in use
© 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. The 1993 children's book Ten Mile Day by Mary Ann Fraser tells the story of the record setting push by the Central Pacific in which they set a record by laying 10 miles (16 km) of track in a single day on April 28, 1869, to settle a $10,000 bet. This routing change was made because the Track 2 and Tunnel 41 Summit crossing is far easier and less expensive to maintain and keep open in the harsh Sierra winters.[80]. The main line was officially completed on May 10, 1869. [41][verification needed] The total area of the land grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific was larger than the area of the state of Texas: federal government land grants totaled about 130,000,000 acres, and state government land grants totaled about 50,000,000 acres. "[48]:49 The laborers usually worked three shifts of 8 hours each per day, while the foremen worked in two shifts of 12 hours each, managing the laborers. Both railroads soon instituted extensive upgrade projects to build better bridges, viaducts and dugways as well as install heavier duty rails, stronger ties, better road beds etc. The construction work involved an immense amount of manual labor. The golden spike was removed after the ceremony and replaced with traditional iron spikes. [22], The report failed however to include detailed topographic maps of potential routes needed to estimate the feasibility, cost and select the best route. The railroad companies were given the odd-numbered sections while the federal government retained the even-numbered sections. [100], "On the ground in the West, Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan, assuming Sherman’s command, took to his task much as he had done in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War, when he ordered the “scorched earth” tactics that presaged Sherman's March to the Sea. The options were to dig it out by pick and shovel, haul the hillside material by wheelbarrow and/or horse or mule cart or blast it loose. [10][11] In the following six months, the last leg from Sacramento to San Francisco Bay was completed. Former ophthalmologist Dr. Thomas Clark "Doc" Durant was nominally only a vice president of Union Pacific, so he installed a series of respected men like John Adams Dix as president of the railroad. [84] Construction superintendent Durant repeatedly failed to pay the wages agreed upon. New York: D. Appleton & Co., December 1870. p. 236. VI, Number 106, March, 1903. pp. To communicate easily up and down the line, the railroads built telegraph lines alongside the railroad. Huntington persuaded Judah to accept financing from himself and four others: Mark Hopkins, his business partner; James Bailey, a jeweler; Leland Stanford, a grocer; and Charles Crocker, a dry-goods merchant. https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad. War parties began to raid the moving labor camps that followed the progress of the line. [25] Three routes were considered: Once the central route was chosen, it was immediately obvious that the western terminus should be Sacramento. Most Caucasians in California preferred to work in the mines or agriculture. Emigrants from poverty stricken regions of China, many of which suffered from the strife of the Taiping Rebellion, seemed to be more willing to tolerate the living and working conditions on the railroad construction, and progress on the railroad continued. An associate of Tubmanâs, ... Transcontinental Railroad. Despite this potential complication, nearly all the different tunnel center lines met within 2 inches (5.1 cm) or so. "The charter of the last-named Company [Western Pacific Railroad] contemplated a line from Sacramento toward San Francisco, making the circuit of the Bay of that name [to San José]. [56], At the end of 1865, Peter A. Dey, Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific, resigned over a routing dispute with Thomas C. Durant, one of the chief financiers of the Union Pacific. The track laying was divided up into various parts. The two lines of track would meet in the middle (the bill did not designate an exact location) and each company would receive 6,400 acres of land (later doubled to 12,800) and $48,000 in government bonds for every mile of track built. The actual track-laying gang would then lay rails on the previously laid ties positioned on the roadbed, drive the spikes, and bolt the fishplate bars to each rail.
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