How Did The Transcontinental Railroad Affect The California Economy

The gold rush of 1849 was a controversial time in history because of the many positives and negatives it brought. Although the time period itself could be violent, it was overall beneficial to the unity and development of the country. The California gold rush had mostly positive effects on America, including the development of the west and hastened to address the issue of slavery to make the country better as a whole.

The Transcontinental Railroad had a drastic effects on many aspects of life during the 1860s, including society, the economy, and the Native Americans’ way of life. These are just a few of the ways the Transcontinental Railroad changed the world. Native Americans were forced to relocate, society had a new outlook on life, and the economy had been boosted almost incalculably.

In the late 19th century, railroads propelled America into an era of unprecedented growth, prosperity, and convenient transportation. Prior to the building of the railroads, America lacked the proper and rapid transportation to make traveling across the country economical or practical. Lengthy travel was often cumbersome, costly, and dangerous. With the advent of the railroad, many of these issues disappeared. Railroads had a major impact on advancing the American economy, transforming America into a modern society, and improving an antiquated transportation system.

The Transcontinental Railroad not only untied the nation, but made America possible. Building the Transcontinental railroad was one of America’s greatest achievements, comparable to traveling to the moon and creating the atomic bomb. It connected the east and west coasts of the country, giving the people the ability to settle wherever they wanted. Before they would have had to travel by wagon, take a ship around South America, or risk getting yellow fever crossing the Isthmus of Panama.

The Washington state railroads had a monumental impact on the development of Washington. The first Transcontinental Railroad, the Northern Pacific, was built, uniting the western half of America, including Washington State, with the eastern half. Radical thinkers such as Governor Stevens proposed a direct connection from the East to the untouched resources of the West. The United Sates government supported the railway lines by providing state grants. They gave the railroad millions of acres of land in the undeveloped West. The railroad companies sold off the land and with the money made, financed their railroad construction. It was built in the late 1800's and was completed over the course of many years. The population of Washington grew quickly

The largest single construction project ever undertaken within the country left approximately eighty thousand people dead, weighing in as the fifth deadliest construction project in the world. The Transcontinental Railroad shortened the distance traveled from the east coast to the west coast from months in a horse drawn wagon to only eight days by train. On July 1,1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began on July 7, 1877 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Workers became angry when the company had reduced their wages for the second time within the previous year. “The strikers refused to let the trains run until the most recent pay cut was returned to the employees” (“Great Railroad Strike of 1877”). The decrease in wages was a result of the economy’s recent downfall. According to Joseph Adamczyk, “That year the country was in the fourth year of a prolonged economic depression after the panic of 1873” (Adamczyk).

The Transcontinental Railroad was the first line across the continent. The railroad line stretched from Omaha, Nebraska, all the way to Sacramento, California. This railroad allowed the United States the opportunity to expand westward, as both people and resources would be able to be shipped much faster than before. In 1862 The Pacific Railway Act was passed, which allowed the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad to construct the lines for the transcontinental railroad. On May 10, 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was established at Promontory, Utah.

To escape debt and seek profit in new lands, many farmers started working westward but so did corporations looking to expand. Because of westward expansion, companies like the union pacific railroad company built railroads that connected lands all across the U.S. and earned 10 miles of land in either direction of the railroad. This land put the railroad in control of many western lands and in control of the prices of land, travel and resource transportation.

There was no stopping the forward progress of the railroads in the 1800s. Trains, even before the mid-century, went twenty miles per hour; that was twice as fast as the stagecoach and four times as fast as the canal boat. To the entrepreneur that meant one thing: profit. These profit-minded Americans wasted no time in laying down track in America. The Transcontinental Railroad was one of these important railroads contributing to trade and economy; it was connected by the Central and Union Pacific Railroads. The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, changed the economy of the nation, created unity between the east and west, and helped transport passengers and freight across the country in a matter of days.

In 1694, Thomas Savery invented what would revolutionize the united states indefinitely, he called it the steam engine. This invention lead to the first steam engine locomotive which many would say was a beneficial turning point in the industrialization of america’s economy,allowing the steam engine to be used on the railways. Although the railroads did impact the United States and certain groups in positive ways,there were also negative effects that occurred.

Over 300,000 people migrated to California during the California Gold Rush. One way that these migrants contributed to Westward Expansion was that they boosted the economy in California. Many small cities in California that had previously consisted of a few hundred citizens soon had tens of thousands of residents. Another

“May God continue the Unity of our country as this railroad unites the two great oceans of the world - David Hewes” (gliderlehrman.com). The Transcontinental Railroad was built to make traveling from the East to the West easier. By doing that it also created a connection between the East and West part of the United States (history.com). The railroad was successfully built but also had struggles with the planning and building of the Union Pacific and of the Central Pacific.

The railroads brought good things to the old west, but when they were building the tracks for it, they had many difficulties and hard times. During the making of the transcontinental railroad, which was the first railroad ever built, they had many difficulties that it took them around 5 years to finish it. Everything came by sea and there was a civil war going on during the first part of the construction of the railroad. Now building the railroad, they needed a lot of money and the only way they were going to get that money from the government was to build the first 40-mile track in the highest mountain in Sacramento. It required thousands of men to work on this track. This caused many deaths from cold and hunger. The workers were so starved to death that some resorted to cannibalism. The Chinese Workers worked the best and helped them break through the mountain after two years. Now they got millions of dollars of aid

The major decline in railroad transportation during the 1950’s was primarily due to the vast construction of interstate highway by the government. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the vast construction of 41,000 miles of roadway with a steep price of 25 billion dollars that would come from taxpayer money. With the increase in air and road travel, the need to travel by rail, in a less direct route, seemed unnecessary. This would ultimately leave railroad companies to believe traveling by rail was in a permanent decline. On February 18, 1947, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) formally announced that they were operating at a loss. Yet, the president, Mr. Martin W. Clement, announced that the railroad is currently transporting more