Itinerary First Transcontinental 1869
2/2/11 10:52 AM
transcontinental line was finished and connected the railroad network of the East coast and the West, going
from Omaha to Sacramento. It opened the way to numerous lines which grew across the country. In 1890,
the United States possessed more than 93,200 miles of railroads which added up to almost one third of the
world's network.
The United States had a golden age during the 1920's and 1930's where monumental railroad stations,
gigantic viaducts and railroad networks grew rapidly before they declined with the emergence of new
transport.
1830 (end) :
1860 :
1890 :
1900 :
1920 :
1940 :
1960 :
1980 :
Today :
Map of the American railroad Network in 1918
37
49.286
150.094
311.183
406.935
376.869
350.104
294.625
250.000
Km
Km
Km
Km
Km
Km
Km
Km
Km
Map of the American railroad Network in 2006
Source : National Railroad Passenger Corp
The transcontinental, from the origins to the Railroad Act
The first visionaries
In 1832, four years after the opening of the first American railroad line, a publisher in Michigan dreamt of a
railroad line from New York to the Oregon situated between the 41st and 42nd parallels of Mississippi to the
Rocky Mountain. Sweet madness, when we know that at this time, the United States counted for only 228
miles of tracks. A century later, this road would be used by the companies Union Pacific and Oregon Short
Line.
In 1840, Asa Whitney (1797-1872), a New York merchant who had made a fortune in Chinese Trade
proposed a coherent project with a line towards the Pacific. He was confident that this corridor was going to
allow the trades between Asia and Europe bring the United States into the center of the attention. He makes
it according to his own words, his crusade: "If they [the Congress] will allow me to be their instrument to
accomplish this great work, it is enough; I ask no more.” In January, 1848, he presents to the congress a
report allowing him to make the construction of a railroad between Lake Michigan and Pacific Ocean
possible*. In the same year, the United States, after their victory on Mexico, annex California, Arizona,
Nevada, Utah, a part of Colorado, of the Wyoming and New Mexico made the project of Asa Whitney
possible.
An unavoidable necessity
In the 1850's, three solutions joined the East coast to the West coast. The first, 13,350 miles long, bypasses
Cape Horn by boat in five months. The second solution, 5,250 miles long, mixes a boat trip to the Panama,
the crossing of the forest with a risk of catching malaria, and another boat for thirty five days. The last leg,
without comfort and regardless of great dangers, crosses Overland between Saint Louis and San Francisco
for a distance of 2,800 miles in thirty days.
From the 1850's, what started as a sweet dream becomes a national necessity to unify the country. In
March, 1853, Congress releases 150,000 dollars to allow a study "to find the most practical and economic
route from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean" but the debate sinks on the choice of the road and the
mode of financing. In 1854, the senator Stephen A. Douglas, author of Kansas - Nebraska Act*, suggests
building three transcontinental railroad lines.
With the Civil War, the Confederates did not contribute further to the debate, leaving the field open to the
Union to facilitate the line of the North. The connection would allow a closer move to California, a loyal state
in the cause against slavery, to take advantage of the gold and silver of the West and to provide along the
way the troops more inclined to conflicts with Indians. In 1862, Lincoln signs an act in favour of the
transcontinental railroad line, "An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the
Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the Use of the same for Postal,
Military and Other Purposes."
The Union Pacific Railroad Company was built from the 100th meridian passing by Cozad, Nebraska and
close to Fort Kearney to the border of California. Leaving Omaha, it borrows the "Iowa Branch", one of four
sections authorized by the congress to connect cities along the Mississippi, before continuing towards
California. On the West side, the state of California had already charged the Central Pacific Railroad
Company to build a railroad between San Francisco and the East border of California according to the same
terms and conditions granted to the Union Pacific. The first of the two companies who could arrive at this
border could continue in the direction of the other one without a meeting point. Every forty-mile section of
tracks, each company received United States bonds amounted to $16,000 per mile on the plains, $ 32,000
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