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14 The First Transcontinental Railroad
Any chance of quick completion was hindered when Native Americans showed open resistance to construction of the railroad. As indigenous peoples, they believed the railroad’s construction was a threat to their existence and that it violated their treaties with the United States.
Though Union Pacific strengthened
its security, it also fought the Native Americans indirectly by slaughtering the primary food source for a great number of the inhabitants there. The railroad hired sharpshooters to pick off American Bison (also known mistakenly as “buffalo”), thus striking back at their native foe, but also at the animals which had been a direct, physical threat to the trains.
The Golden Spike
The Promontory Summit in Utah became an important spot in the history of the railroad system. This is where laborers from both the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad gathered to witness Governor Leland Stanford of California drive the so-called golden spike, joining the two lines.
The media reported live on this eventful assembly of workers from west and east. Completion of the railway represented a giant leap forward in transportation and telecommunication as coast-to-coast travel that had previously taken six months or more became a week’s adventure by train. As the final spike also connected
a telegraph line, the entire nation celebrated upon receipt of the message that read “DONE.”
First Transcontinental Railroad Journey
The symbolic golden spike merely linked Omaha and Sacramento, whose line was extended to San Francisco Bay at
TTheodore Judah
Major railroads are often the product of one or more visionaries, and the transcontinental railroad was no different. Theodore Dehone Judah was a 19th-century
American civil engineer, railroad builder and railway enthusiast. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1826. His obsession for the Pacific Railroad earned him the name “Crazy Judah.”
From 1854 to 1856, Judah worked for the Sacramento Valley Railroad. Then he furthered his studies on the possibility of a railroad route through California. His convictions were courageous, and his enthusiasm led to the 1859 convention in California that discussed the feasibility the Pacific Railroad. Nothing came out of these meetings.
In 1861, Judah convinced a group of businessmen to invest in the Pacific Railroad. The “Big Four” were united and the Central Pacific Railroad Company established. Problems set in when Judah’s partners began alienating him from the project. In 1863, he sailed to New York to find financiers so he could buy out his partners. Unfortunately, he caught yellow fever while traveling and died in his wife’s arms.
of
Union Pacific Railroad
Initial construction of the Union Pacific was on land around Omaha, Nebraska, owned by Thomas Clark Durant, a major stockholder. During its first two and a half years, the railway spanned many miles of independent tracks not over 40 miles from Omaha. With wider government intervention after the American Civil War, tracks were laid to the west, but still under
the influence of Durant through his company, Crédit Mobilier.
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