First Transcontinental Railroad Research Paper

First transcontinental railroad The construction of the first transcontinental railroad undoubtedly changed the Country. Construction of the project took place between 1863 and 1869. The Transcontinental Railroad, also known as the Pacific Railroad and the Overland Route, was opened on May 10, 1869. It had a huge impact on expanding the nation to the west, and made transporting goods, and people across the country much faster. This caused people to sell more things to a wider range of consumers. A trip across the country by wagon was dangerous and took months. In order to travel west before the Pacific Railroad, people had to ride on horse drawn wagons across dangerous land with many risks. Some people traveled by ship around the continent.

Before the Pacific Railroad was built, traveling across the country was impossible for a lot of people. Before the Railroad, it cost at least $1,000 dollars to travel across the country. After the railroad was built and available to the public, the price was reduced to around $150 dollars.

A transcontinental railroad was discussed among congress and senators since at least 1832. The first person to officially propose the idea of a federally funded transcontinental railroad was Asa Whitney in 1845. Asa Whitney was a New York merchant who was active in the China trade. In 1849 Whitney published a booklet to promote his plan called Project for a Railroad to the Pacific. Whitney and a few others wanted to start the project immediately, but there were a few setbacks. Although Congress failed to sanction his plan, Whitney made the Pacific railroad one of the great public issues of the day. The land in the west, many of it was populated by hostile native Indians and there were many rivers, deserts, canyons, and mountains to cross. Not all the politicians wanted to build the railroad because it would cost too much. Although the discovery of gold in California, and the success of the eastern railroads increased interest in building a railroad to the Pacific. Railroads were