I'd like to thank ALL the people who helped me on this...Now, about 3 hours later and a brain that can't handle anymore, here's what I did in all its glory: (Not sure why I'm posting it, don't ask)
In the few hundred years of America?s existence they?ve had to go through a countless amount of obstacles. It seems more often than not there?s always been just that one little thing keeping them from going to the next level. But through the adversaries, America has managed through it, by way of war and combat among other things. During the mid 1800?s, California was the place to be if one wanted to strike it rich. The territory was new and was just waiting to be settled. The resources and opportunity it possessed made it welcome to the millions of Americans out there. There was just one problem though: California lay a whole continent away from most of the population. To get there one would have to travel thousands of miles through unchartered territory across mountains, deserts, and Indian territories. This discouraged many possible settlers from doing so, and as a result the government deviated a plan to build a railroad across the entire continent. This would allow for easy future expansions out west for those looking for a new life, and would pave the way for the future of America to the great place nearly 30 million people today call home. One could say that the West would not have been settled within the time period of 1865 to 1890 without the railroad, and the railroad would not have been built without the help of the government, technological developments, and the immigrants that risked their lives along the way.
California has been known throughout history as the ?Golden State?. With all the ?get right quick? schemes that have evolved over here starting with the Gold Rush, to Hollywood, and to today the Silicon Valley, people have always been in a hurry to move out here, and those who have, usually don?t want to leave. But all the industries out West would not have taken place without the ease of simple transportation, and that?s where the railroad fits in. Back in the early 1800?s, when the west was frontier land and consisted of nothing but thousands of miles of mysterious terrain, hardly a soul would volunteer to seek it out. In fact, only two brave pioneers would volunteer to lead a journey to explore the west, Lewis & Clark. Their successful journey showed that travel by foot was possible, but not plausible. Obviously the government couldn?t expect the millions of Americans in the East who don?t know the first thing about traveling thousands of miles to go out there by wagon taking along with them their family, all their personal possessions, and life out towards the west. But those that were up to the challenge would take months at a time either going by land or through the dangerous canals of South/Central America. So to actually make going out west a practicality for the majority of Americans, there had to have been a much more feasible way in doing it. And as the Southern U.S. was currently out of the union, the North proposed a solution; which was of course ran on wheels and stretched from Omaha, Nebraska out to Sacramento, California, allowing Easterners easy accessibility out here. The Americans soon took advantage of the situation as the millions flocked out west and basted in the wealth the west had to offer. The frontier had been settled.
With such great opportunity just on the other side of the continent, it was a wonder why a railroad wasn?t built years earlier. Clearly the idea of easy transportation out west was there, but there was one thing missing: the technology to do it. Compared to today?s standards, the railroad is a rather simplistic piece of machinery made up of a few parts. But to the people back then, the railroad was like the space rocket of today. It combined some of the latest technological developments at the time into the recognizable boxcars we all see today. The steam locomotive invented in 1803 was where it all began. It certainly has evolved over the 19th century from a small engine capable of dragging 20 tons in excess of 5 m.p.h. But as the years went on along came the improvements. The capacity it could hold and the speed it could go went up, eventually high enough to allow for practical traveling and hauling. As the technology evolved so did the railroads and trains. Oak would turn to iron, and iron would turn to steel.
Throughout most of the 19th century the government had owned most of the land throughout the west. So to start a project that would cover a good portion of the west, permission had to be granted by the government in order for it to work. And so in 1864, the government of the United States passed the Railroad Act. The act would go on and give privately owned companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific the okay signal to initiate it. With each track laid each of the two respective companies would get a portion of land and money along with it, or more specifically, twenty square miles of land and at least $16,000 or up to $48,000 (depending on the elevation) per mile of track they laid. Obviously the government incentive provided motivation for each of the two companies to lay the most amount of track and to do it as quickly as possible, shortening the amount of time Americans would have to wait for the finished ?portal out west?. But was it good to have greed be the motivation? In a moral sense, the motivation is questionable, as it may have harmed the people working on the railroad by having them pushed too hard. On the other hand would any two companies have stepped up to do the project, had it not been for the rewards offered? In a capitalistic country, many would say no.
Now that the permission was granted and the technology was available, there was only one thing left: the people. Over 20,000 men risked their lives every day over the six-year period to labor in the building of the massive assignment. They say there is a Chinese for every mile of track laid, and while that statement may be an over-exaggeration, it may not be by much. The Central Pacific employed over 10,000 Chinese workers themselves, many of whom were not able to handle the harsh conditions presented to them, and as a result, sacrificed their own lives in the building of the railroad. The Union Pacific also hired many immigrants as well; Europe-Irishmen, Germans, Dutch, and Czechoslovakians were part of the team, as were thousands of Civil War veterans. The thousands exerted twelve grueling hours a day, with freezing temperatures, soaring heat, avalanches, and premature dynamite explosions. The men behind the development who gave up their own lives and moved thousands of miles from their families are truly the heroes of the railroad.
At last, after six long years, on May 10, 1869 the railroads were adjoined. It was on that day in Promontory, Utah the new America was born. West and East were no longer separated and divided, but now America was united, giving a new name to the country.
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