Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869
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Go directly to the collection, Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.
Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making: The Transcontinental Railroad
As early as 1830, people in the United States speculated about the possibility of a transcontinental railroad that would connect the eastern states with the Pacific coast. Around 1855, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis commissioned surveys in preparation for the building of rail lines across the continent. Several of the surveys, conducted by the War Department and the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, are included in the collection. Search on railroad for these maps as well as other pertinent items.
- What were the costs and benefits of each of these three routes that were considered for a transcontinental railroad?
- Which route seems most direct?
- Which route seems easiest to build?
- What would be the advantages and disadvantages of creating a railroad route through sparsely populated areas?
- What would be the advantages and disadvantages of creating a railroad route through highly populated areas?
- What alternative routes could have been considered (e.g., from New Orleans to Southern California)?
- What do you think was the purpose of the transcontinental railroad?
- How would the creation of the railroad have affected settlement and the continent's natural resources?
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, authorizing two companies to construct the transcontinental railroad, called the Central Pacific Railroad. The Central Pacific Railroad Company laid tracks eastward from Sacramento, California while the Union Pacific Railroad Company laid tracks westward from Omaha, Nebraska. They met in Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869.
For more information and materials on the Central Pacific Railroad, refer to the Collection Connections for History of the American West, 1860-1920.