Transcontinental Railroad & Its Impact on the Development of the United States

At the mention of the US railways, the memory necessarily emerges the Wild West, the romance of travel and ultramodern trains. However, the railway is not only an important component of American cinema, but it is also a serious part of the transport communication of this huge country. Naturally, the beginning is always difficult, that is why, despite the development of land transport, ordinary people did not hurry to use the services of trains. Although the development and construction, which began with the easy hand of John Stevens in 1815, do not stop even until this day, the locomotives caused some fears and, quite simply, religious superstitions in the hearts of Americans in the early 19th century. The railway instantly changed the demographics and economy of the American West. Thus, the main aim of the assignment is to explore the emergence of the transcontinental railroad and its impact on the development of the United States. The thesis statement is the following: the construction of the transcontinental railroad, which connected the two coasts with steel linen, became a powerful impetus to the development of the entire country, the accession of new territories and the strengthening of the unity of the state.

Making a brief description of the matter of the issue, it is important to note that the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries was marked by the beginning of a powerful population movement to the West in America, which lasted almost the entire century. Already, not only individual adventurers, immigrant families or convinced individualists-pioneers, but also whole streams of pioneers moved further south-west and then north-west frontier. As new territories were developed and expanded, new states were created. As far back as the 1790s, Kentucky and Tennessee were annexed to the United States, while Ohio entered the country in 1803. In the same year, T. Jefferson bought Louisiana, doubling the country’s space and opening the prospect of promoting the nation to the Pacific Ocean. Immense land stretched before the Americans, and these territories were available to anyone who was ready to develop them. Thus, the history of the construction of the railway from the east to the west coast serves as a clear example of the struggle of the market and politics.

Pioneers cleared the “jungle” and drove the indigenous inhabitants of these places from their lands. Pioneering contributed to technical progress. Francaviglia noted that “railroads had proven themselves the most efficient and safest mode of overland travel, and politicians began to get on board, so to speak” (Francaviglia, 2008). In such a way, shortly after California became part of the United States, the laying of a transcontinental railroad (completed in 1869) was started, necessary to ensure communication between the regions of such a vast state.

The personal motives that drove people to the West were diverse. However, there was one common reason, heavily supported by politicians, and it was the Americans’ responsibility to their country, which had to be mastered by spreading the Anglo-Saxon civilization and Christianity to the whole continent, and to the world that should have been shown an example of the glory of the democratic Christian state.

Pioneering in the development of new lands significantly affected the nature of the nation. More precisely, it shaped the American character in many ways. The former colonists carried with them a European social order and culture (Williams, 2002). It means, the further a person moved to the West, the less a person remained European; the more new features appeared in the character of those people. These new personal features corresponded to the powerful untouched nature of the continent and the harsh life of the pioneers: contempt for conventions, trust in own efforts, ingenuity, endurance, perseverance and strength. One of the contemporaries defined the frontier as a “Christian with fists” (Angevine, 2004).

Considering the process of building a transcontinental railroad, it can be noted that after acquiring new lands, the government needed to decide to which side it would be better to join them – to the slave or free. The fact is that the construction of the railroad coincided with the war of the North against the South. Therefore, the southern version of the passage of the road categorically fell away. In such a way, in 1862, Abraham Lincoln, despite the outbreak of the war of the North against the South, made the most important decision: to build a transcontinental railway. It was often called the “Pacific” at that time, bypassing the territory of the Southern part. According to approximate calculations of engineers, the length of the railway was planned to be approximately 3000 km. The decree was issued. It was planned to execute this concept for construction as soon as possible. The construction was entrusted to two renowned and honored companies Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad. By the way, the last of the companies is one of the richest in our time. It owns the largest rail network in the United States of America. It began laying railroad tracks from east to west, and Central Pacific walked towards it from west to east.

The construction of the road opened up great prospects for Americans. The main issue was not in gold mining, which, as it later turned out, was not there. The rails were laid not in vain, the forces were spent not in vain: the connection between the two coasts allowed to continue the development of trade, the rapid exchange of information, agriculture began to develop in the western region, the period was marked by a huge influx of people from the eastern states to the western states (Usselman, 2002). Costs, as always, when the country tries to accomplish something grand, were huge. However, if the achievements are as great, these costs pay off.

Being more specific, it should be said that the adoption of the railway charter and the creation of the first two steam locomotives spoke about the irreversible process of introducing the railway into the lives of ordinary Americans. After a visual experiment that proved that the locomotive overcomes the distance much faster than other possible types of transportation, the fate of the railway has been solved. Since then, the US railways have only increased their length.

During the laying of railways, many corruption schemes were invented and many crimes committed. Some people were forcibly expelled from their homes if their settlement hampered the construction, and in exchange, they received an insignificant sum of money, which would not be enough for a quarter of the house. Bribes and threats were often practiced. To explain, if the railroad passes too far from a settlement, this settlement will deteriorate, so many mayors specifically paid for the rails to be laid in a convenient place for them.

The companies themselves stole without shame and conscience. After calculating losses, it turned out that hundreds of thousands of dollars went only to bribes, and companies demanded more funding from the state, although they spent only half of this money for construction. The rampant fraud on the railways led to the fact that the finances of the railways came under control that was more stringent from the bankers, who were striving for stability: they wanted to profit by legal means, and not through the help of thieves and dubious deals.

The construction of the railway became a dark spot in the history of the United States. It is difficult to calculate the quantity of crimes that were committed in those times. Many officials were enriched literally in a matter of months without even participating in gold mining, but only receiving huge bribes and appropriating to themselves the funds allocated for construction. Galloway stated that “financing construction, while a part of general management of a railroad, played an important role in determining the speed at which the work went forward” (Galloway, 1950). The act on the construction of the transcontinental railroad provided a certain scheme of financing works. In accordance with estimates, every kilometer had its own price, in dependence on the place of its location. Moreover, to ensure additional financing, the government allowed construction companies to sell a number of land plots along the railway line.

Whatever the skeptics (who regard the construction of a transcontinental railroad as a useless contrivance) say, the construction of the transcontinental railroad has accomplished a kind of revolution in the economy of the United States and the migration of Americans. Unfortunately, rumors about the untold reserves of precious metal in California were just rumors, unrealizable dreams of people who wanted to quickly enrich themselves with gold sand and bullions. However, the development of trade between the East and West has made huge adjustments not only in the economy, but also in US policy. Moreover, the fertile lands of the west region attracted a huge number of migrants who, in the shortest period of time, began to develop agriculture on them.

Speaking about the influence of the US transcontinental railroad on the religious aspect, it also important to mention that many Catholics came to Utah. Such a migration of Catholics reduced the number of Mormons that made almost 100% of the state’s population (Dearinger, 2016). Mormons were not pleasing to the government in their vast predominance because they led a separate life and did not want to obey the laws of the United States and accept democracy.

As a result, the opening of the transcontinental railroad, linking the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, had a revolutionary impact on the development of the country and the development of the economy of the American West. The construction of the railroad gave a powerful impetus to the development of metallurgy, contributed to an increase in the output of industrial equipment associated with the railway industry, and caused the expansion of crop areas of agricultural crops. The creation of the steel main repeatedly increased the speed of communication between the opposite parts of the country, connected the seaports of the two oceans and the largest cities.

In conclusion, we have discussed the emergence of a transcontinental railroad and explored its impact on the development of the United States. We have also proved the thesis that a powerful infrastructure, which appeared because of the transcontinental railroad construction, linked the huge country into a single whole, and influenced not only the economy, but also demography and ethnography. From the east of the country, Anglo-Saxon migrants moved to develop new territories, displacing the autochthonous Indians and Hispanic Creoles in California. Migration also led to a blurring of the religious composition of the territory of Utah, which previously consisted of Mormon population. By the beginning of the twentieth century, new more modern transport systems were built in different directions from the first railroad and parallel to it.

Works Cited

Angevine, R. The Railroad and the State: War, Politics, and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America. Stanford University Press, 2004.

Dearinger, R. The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West. University of California Press 2016.

Francaviglia, R. V. Over the Range: A History of the Promontory Summit Route of the Pacific Railroad. Utah State University Press, 2008.

Galloway, J. B. The First Transcontinental Railroad: Central Pacific, Union Pacific. Simmons Boardman, 1950.

Usselman, S. W. Regulating Railroad Innovation: Business, Technology, and Politics in America, 1840-1920. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Williams, J. Fugitive Slave in the Gold Rush: Life and Adventures of James Williams. University of Nebraska Press, 2002.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

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freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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