Infrastructure Past, Present, and Future Casebook/Transcontinental Railroad

Transcontinental Railroad

Summary


The Transcontinental Railroad, commissioned in 1862 and finished May 1869, brought about by the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, was the first railroad to connect the United States from east to west across the mountains. It was contracted by the Union Pacific Railroad Company in the east from Missouri to the Iowa-Nebraska border, and the Central Pacific Railroad company in the west from Sacramento, California, and across the Sierra Nevada. Each company received an initial 6,400 acres of land and $48,000 for every mile of track built. After three initially troublesome years of development, corruption within the companies, and other hardships the laborers faced, the railroad took approximately seven years to complete. The completion of the railroad would not have been possible without the tens of thousands of Chinese laborers who joined in the Sierra Nevada. To complete the railroad, the two companies’ designated tracks met in Promontory Summit in Utah on May 10, 1869, finalizing the railroad by hammering a golden spike to the final tie.

The original 3,000-mile journey across the mountains took months and around $1,000; with the transcontinental railroad, this journey was reduced to under a week and dropped the cost by 85%, down to $150, to traverse the Rocky Mountains. This decrease in the cost of travel led to an increase in the desirability of travel to the west. This led to the railroad bringing in a rather significant profit.

Annotated List of Actors
- Asa Whitney, a merchant from New York and primary supporter of the railroad [13 ]

- Asa Whitney, a merchant from New York and primary supporter of the railroad [13 ]

- Theodore Judah, young engineer who chose the Donner Pass as the primary route for the railroad [9 ]

- Thomas Hart Benton, Democratic U.S. Senator from Missouri (1821-1851) [13 ]

- Hartwell Carver, a businessperson who proposed a railroad prototype plan in 1849 [13 ]

- Edwin F. Johnson, a civil engineer who drew an 1853 map of the railroad [4 ]

- John C. Calhoun, U.S. representative, U.S. Senator, and Vice President of the United States, from South Carolina [13 ] [10 ]

- Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic U.S. Senator from Illinois (1847-1861) [13 ] [11 ]

- Robert S. Williamson, a lieutenant who oversaw the connection of the railroad through California, Oregon, and the Washington state [13 ]

- John W. Gunnison, a captain who originally was set to explore the 47th and 49th parallels but was killed in a battle with Native American tribes during his expedition. [13 ]

- Edward G. Beckwith, a lieutenant who "continued the survey along the 41st parallel" [13 ]

- Amiel W. Whipple, an "assistant astronomer of the Mexican Boundary Survey" [13 ]

- Joseph Christmas Ives, a lieutenant who surveyed the 35th parallel [13 ]

- John J. Abert, a colonel who helped survey the 35th parallel [13 ]

- John G. Parke, a lieutenant who surveyed the 32nd parallel [13 ]

- John Pope, a captain who "mapped the eastern portion of the route from Dona Ana, New Mexico, to the Red River" [13 ]

- Collins P. Huntington, a Central Pacific executive [8 ]

- Mark Hopkins, a Central Pacific executive [8 ]

- Leland Stanford, a Central Pacific executive [8 ]

- Charles Crocker, a Central Pacific executive [8 ]

- Grenville M. Dodge, a general who was the chief engineer for the field of operations [8 ]

Timeline
Beginning stages

The Transcontinental Railroad began at the urging of the then-President Abraham Lincoln, which may have suggested such a project because, "... it cost nearly $1,000 to travel across the country." [9 ]

President Lincoln endorsed the idea of a Transcontinental Railroad on his 1860 campaign proposal, in his attempt to move westward. [26 ]

Once signed into law by Lincoln around 1862 (Pacific Railroad Act), two companies began to form to construct the project, according to the...

Pacific Railroad Act. The Central Pacific Railroad Company (CPRC) made tracks from Sacramento, California, heading east to the Sierra Nevada River. The Union Pacific Railroad Company(UPC) was to assemble tracks around the border between Iowa and Nebraska heading west toward the Sierra Nevada River. These two tracks were to meet at an undetermined place (since the Act itself did not specify where they would meet). Both CPRC and UPC would get 6,400 acres of land (soon doubled to 12,800) and $48,000, "...in government bonds for every mile of track built." Both CPRC and UPC, after working 3 years on the railroad, had not accomplished much; however, it did give way for both companies to become corrupt and exhibit behavior resembling the "Wild West." After these issues occurred, and Charles Crocker (which oversaw the construction of the CPRC potion) had continued issues retaining labor; he began employing Chinese Workers to begin laying tracks. The Chinese Railroad Workers proved to be indispensable workers, and after sometime they consisted of four out of every five railroad workers (on the CPRC potion). According to CBS Sunday Morning, the Chinese workers, "were able to lay down, 'ten miles of rail in one day."

The Meeting Point

After seven long years of work on the railroad track the two companies were able to decide on a place to meet in the middle. The place they decided on was called Promontory Summit, Utah and this was where the final spike was driven into the ground on May 10th, 1869 at 12:47pm.

Different Trains Used

Finally, the train they used back in the beginning of the transcontinental railroad were wildly different than they use today. While they used mainly steam engines, instead we now use diesel engine nowadays.

Map of Locations




First Map: [9 ]; second Map [24 ]; Third Map: [23 ]

Risk Allocation
The transcontinental railroad was provisioned by the US government under the Railroad Act of 1862, which provided approximately $60 million to the construction of the transcontinental railroad - equivalent to approximately $1.2 billion today. This money was shown to two companies - the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Central Pacific Railroad Company - in charge of the production of the railroad in the forms of land subsidies, and government bonds and loans (Kiger, 2019). These companies were quickly corrupt at the beginning of the railroad construction, and became non-compliant, refusing to work on the railroad or pay back loans later on (Trains 2019).

This corruption was accompanied by a shortfall in revenues, which in turn led to insufficient land and monetary provision, running a risk of company bankruptcy. Aided by insufficiency in labor, this led to very little being accomplished by the 3-year mark, throwing the railroad production off schedule.

Because of harsh winters and intense summer heat, most of the Union Pacific laborers were miserable. The workers lost to these poor conditions, coupled with the laborers lost to avalanches, and explosion mishaps, whole crews of workers were lost (History.com Editors, 2009).

The government ran a large technical risk by not deciding a meeting location of eastern and western portions of the railroad until 7 years after the project began. This could have led to hundreds of miles of railroad needing to be built to make up for a diversion in the track a large distance from the meeting point.

In acquiring the land, Native American tribes were forced to relocate. Because they refused to comply due to not wanting to destroy their culture, violence ensued. This violence became so intense the military was forced to get involved in order to subdue the Native Americans (Whitehouse, 2014).

Delivery Process
The Transcontinental Railroad was a government contract. Before the delivery for construction began, a process of perceiving the potential layout for the track had to occur. “It was not until 1853, though, that Congress appropriated funds to survey several routes for the transcontinental railroad." [6 ] After this process, legislation was passed by Congress in order to build this infrastructure. “The Railroad Act of 1862 put government support behind the transcontinental railroad and helped create the Union Pacific Railroad, which subsequently joined with the Central Pacific...” [13 ] Once this occurred, the rail companies involved started giving out construction contracts. “In December 1862, the Central Pacific Railroad awarded its first construction contract to Charles Crocker & Company. The construction company subcontracted the first 18 miles to firms with hands-on experience...” [15 ] This entire development, from the legislation enactment, until the conclusion of the project, took a total of seven years. “... The Union Pacific and Central Pacific workers were able to finish the railroad-laying nearly 2,000 miles of track- by 1869, ahead of schedule and under budget.” [6 ]

Production

Regarding the producing labor force of the Central Pacific Railroad, “[Foreman James Harvey] Strobridge... Agreed to hire 50 Chinese men as wagon-fillers. Their work ethic impressed him, and he hired more Chinese workers for more difficult tasks.” [22 ] Overtime, Chinese workers began to make up most of the human resources of the Central Pacific Railroad construction. “Chinese workers on CP payrolls began increasing by the shipload. Several thousand Chinese men had signed on by the end of that year; the number rose to a high of 12,000 in 1868, comprising at least 80% of the Central Pacific workforce.” [22 ] In the Union Pacific Railroad, Chinese workers were not the dominant personnel of this side of the project. Regarding this producing force of the UP, “The end of the Civil War brought... Thousands of demobilized soldiers [who] were eager for work. Additionally, by 1866 the railroad had managed to import Irishmen from the teeming cities of the eastern seaboard.” [22 ]

Efficiency

The economic inputs were translated into efficient economic outputs. Though at the start of this project, this input was a huge risk. “By one estimate, the project cost roughly $60 million, about $1.2 billion in today’s money...” [7 ] While the inputted cost was high, the output annually produced efficient prosperous outputs that more than made up for the initial cost. “By 1880, the transcontinental railroad was transporting $50 million worth of freight each year.” [7 ] This project became so well profitable that “... The railroad also facilitated international trade... [as] The first freight train to travel eastward from California carried a load of Japanese tea.” [7 ] Through this rise and expansion in trade, “... [It] gave the United States the single largest market in the world, which provided the basis for the rapid expansion of American industry and agriculture to the point where the U.S. by the 1890s had the most powerful economy on the planet.” [7 ]

Fiscal equivalence

Before the railroad was built, westward travel was primarily done through stagecoaches. “In the 1860s, a sixth-month stagecoach trip across the U.S. cost $1,000 (about $20,000 in today’s dollars).” [7 ] This significantly changed in the coming years. “... Once the railroad was built, the cost of a coast-to-coast trip became 85 percent less expensive.” [7 ] As a result, the travelers who used this system paid at a level proportionate with the degree of travel. The equity principle regarding travel costs was heavily prevalent in this aspect of the delivery process.

Redistribution

The railroad system redistributed resources from the rich to the poor mainly in the geographic context. “... The first transcontinental railroad and the other lines that followed made it easy for immigrants to spread across the nation.” [7 ] The enormous amount of funds allocated to this project allowed for more convenience of travel to those not of significant wealth. Travel was not the only method in which redistribution from rich to poor occurred. “[It also] made it possible to sell products far and wide without a physical storefront, and enabled people all over the country to furnish their homes and keep up with the latest fashion trends.” [7 ] The accessibility of broader commerce for impoverished people increased. However, redistribution also occurred in the opposite direction as well. The construction of the railroad led to resources being taken from Native Americans for the benefit of those who were funding the project. “... The forced relocation of Native Americans from their lands resulted in widespread destruction of Native American cultures and ways of life.” [21 ] This redistribution from impoverished Native tribes to wealthy industrialists became so severe that it led to violence. “Many conflicts arose as the railroad project continued westward, and the military was brought in to fight Native American tribes.” [21 ]

Accountability

The effects of this system reflected the overall desires of the stakeholders. It reflected the consumers by expanding a unifying culture. “The rails carried more than goods; they provided a conduit for ideas, a pathway for discourse... America gave birth to transcontinental culture.” [12 ] This transition into a new form of society allowed for people to grow closer as a coherent nation “Here was manifest destiny wrought in iron; here were two coasts united; here was an interior open to settlement. Distances shrank, but identification to land and fellow American grew in inverse proportion.” [12 ] The effects also reflected the desires of the corporate investors as “It pioneered government-financed capitalism.” [7 ] This realization of new economic forms of maneuvering was manifested mainly through the individuals of The Central Pacific Railroad. “The Central Pacific’s ‘Big Four’-Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker-figured out how to tap into government coffers to finance a business that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible.” [7 ] This company then took this realization approach into action. The transcontinental railroad “... Was built on land grants, government loans, and government-guaranteed bonds. When their loans came due, they refused to pay and the government had to sue. In effect, they stumbled into a business model where the public takes the risk and those taking the subsidies reap the gain.” [7 ] This wasn’t the end of this form of business tactic though as “Other entrepreneurs would follow the Big Four’s lead in tapping government help to build their business.” [7 ]

Adaptability

The construction of the railroad had to adapt to the ever-changing environment of the western United States. “Harsh winters, staggering summer heat, and the lawless, rough-and-tumble conditions of newly settled western towns made conditions for Union Pacific laborers... Miserable.” [6 ] The Central Pacific railroad had to adapt to the cold climate and treacherous mountains. “The immigrant... Chinese work force of the Central Pacific... Had... Brutal 12-hour workdays laying tracks over the Sierra Nevada Mountains... Whole crews would be lost to avalanches, or mishaps with explosives would leave several dead.” [6 ] Construction of tunnels through the mountains of the Sierra Nevada was done through explosive mechanisms. “Toil commenced on ...Tunnel No. 6... With men blasting inward from what would become the east and west portals of the passage.” [16 ] However, this process led to slow progress and even more insubstantial results. “Tunneling would take place on four faces at a time, as two teams worked inward from the eastern and western ends of the tunnel and two more teams worked back-to-back from the middle, moving outward.” [16 ] Nevertheless, a new compound was introduced into the construction project, that allowed for quicker results. “... Nitroglycerine... Allowed for shallower holes of narrow width, but its blasts achieved a much greater destructive yield... [It] was also much easier to move than the debris of black powder, saving a lot of cumulative time and sweat.” [16 ] This compound also made the work easier for the laborers as well. “Workers were able to advance up to two feet per day on all four faces, instead of measuring each hard one inch.” [16 ]

Cost
The construction of the railroad was overseen by Union Pacific and Central Pacific. [8 ] Central Pacific was led by Collins P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker. [8 ] While these leaders had disagreements over how to implement the railroad, they successfully managed to build their portions of the railroad. Meanwhile, Union Pacific only had one major actor, General Grenville M. Dodge, who oversaw the field of operations. [8 ] The building of the transcontinental railroad had a significantly high cost for the 19th century. Building the track in the plains cost $16,000 per mile in government bonds, $32,000 per mile for building it in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada mountains, and $48,000 per mile for other mountain regions. [8 ] The building of the railroad across the Central Pacific region cost between $36 million and $51.5 million, whereas building it through the Union Pacific cost approximately $60 million. [8 ] When completed in 1869, the project through Union Pacific cost a total of $111 million with $74 million in bonds, which is equivalent to approximately $2,238,853,676.47 in inflation-adjusted dollars for the present day. [8 ] [25 ]

Financial Structure
A portion of the transcontinental railroad was financed by the United States Government. “Construction of the first transcontinental railroad, financed with large federal subsidies, is an important event in American history.” [3 ] The biggest aspect that allowed for these loans was the passage of a piece of legislation in 1862. “... The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 provided a construction loan and land grants to two private companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific.” [3 ] Thus, this component was financially produced through both public and private means. “Usually, a joint venture between a state or local government and private interests, railroads were expected to generate fair returns for public and private investors, but their ultimate goal was to create a transportation infrastructure that enhanced general prosperity.” [14 ] Even though their initial goal was to unite the country through fast transportation, they were still faced with financial issues through ineffective behavior. “The Union Pacific of the late 19th century was challenged by inept management, serial scandals, two financial panics, two bankruptcies, political pot shots, and the kinds of external events that damage… Strong corporations.” [14 ] However, these hurdles allowed for a rational solution that led to more coherent and ethical financial actions that permitted consistent results. “... The cleverest scheme UP’s management executed was Credit Mobilier of America, the independent construction company hired to build the Union Pacific… The original idea was to keep everyone honest by separating the management and operation of the railroad from its construction.” [14 ]

Institutional Structure
Some of the institutions involved were the federal government through legislation and private railroad companies through materials, construction, and labor. “These laws granted rights of way and use of building materials along the way... To companies that would build the transcontinental railroad and its feeder lines.” [15 ] The two biggest corporate institutions involved were the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads, each covering two different geographical areas to construct in. “... The Union Pacific Railroad, [was] to be built from the Platte River Valley in Nebraska to the border between Nevada and California, with two feeder lines from Omaha to Sioux City…” [15 ] While “... The Central Pacific Railroad, [was] to be built as a feeder line from Sacramento over the Sierra Nevada to meet the Union Pacific eastwards and to San Francisco in the West...” [15 ] However, these weren’t the only two institutions involved as “... The Leavenworth, Pawnee & Western, later to be known as the Union Pacific Eastern Division... [Existed] to link the 100th meridian Southeast with Kansas City.” [15 ] In order to prepare a labor force to construct an aspect of this system, “... Charles Crocker (who oversaw construction for the central Pacific) began hiring Chinese laborers… The Chinese laborers proved to be tireless workers, and Crocker hired more… some 14,000 were toiling under brutal working conditions…” [9 ] When the structure started to reach tougher terrains, such as mountains, different operating measures had to be taken in order to construct the railroad efficiently. “To blast through the mountains, the Central Pacific built huge wooden trestles on the western slopes and used gunpowder and nitroglycerine to blast tunnels through the granite.” [9 ]

Policy Issues
Not only was the Transcontinental Railroad something that concerned hard infrastructure, there were some other policy issues which also went into the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad. Among the most important policy issues for the Transcontinental Railroad was a desire for the westward expansion of the United States.

The project began and was indeed completed, once the last shots of the Civil War were fired. This meant that not only were Presidents Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant, concerned with unifying a badly divided country but they also had to deal with the concerns of connecting the young country from coast or coast at long last. At the time, those who lived in densely populated areas around the United States had a strong desire to spread out, in terms of homeownership, they wanted to create space between themselves and their neighbors. This want of more space and push to go out west eventually brought about unintended conflicts between the Westward settlers, the Transcontinental Railroad workers, and the Native Americans.

The second most important policy issue for the railroad was how economics and the efficiency of the transport of goods and services to and from east to west (and back) went into the creation of the railroad. The creation of the Transcontinental Railroad was thanks to not only President Abraham Lincoln but Asa Whitney and Theodore Judah. Whitney was a New York merchant who did business with the Chinese and believed in an efficient way to transport goods arriving in California from Asia which then needed to be transported to the primary homestead of the American population, the east coast. The New York businessman reasoned that, "...linking the coast would unlock the commercial potential of China while eliminating infernal ocean commutes" and also "...a railway would become the corridor of exchange between Europe and Asia, placing America at the center of the world's attention." [27 ] However, Whitney forgot an essential part of the plan to make his dream of a railroad connecting the west coast to the rest of America, something a young Theodore Judah would use to steal the show: a route. In the year 1860, a young engineer, by the name of Theodore Judah, came up with a plan to cross the Rocky Mountains, and he gathered investors from all over, the then, America, to make the Central Pacific Railroad Company. The investors, a feasible plan, at least given the circumstance, and a company built for the sole purpose of developing this railroad, Judah managed to convince congressmen and President Abraham Lincoln of his plan. The following year the Railroad Act of 1862 was passed, giving way to the Transcontinental Railroad. The policy issue here was, Whitney didn't have a plan, let alone backing for it, and the route plan was all that stood between him and his railroad.

Narrative
The idea for the transcontinental railroad began in the early 19th century when the earliest map was thought to be drafted in 1830 (LOC). It is unknown who originally came up with the idea for this project, but a merchant named Asa Whitney played a significant role in gaining legislative approval for it. Whitney published an idea he called a Project for a Railroad to the Pacific in 1849, which served as his first draft of the railroad. His original plan involved the train tracks being built from Wisconsin to the West coast across the Rocky Mountains.

At first, the United States Congress did not accept this original draft, as the final railroad was not completed until twenty years later, in 1869. Creating this railroad seemed quite difficult, but as the 19th century came to its midway point, there were additional events that made building the tracks much easier. The U.S. government expanded its territory to the West Coast, and the Gold Rush of 1849 brought more tourists to the West. Additionally, the U.S. gained California as an official territory after the Mexican War. All these new developments combined helped create more demand for a railroad that expanded.

The construction ran into many obstacles on the way, of course. In the western territories, there were several Native American tribes that conflicted with the government’s economic interests. As an act of rebellion, there were tribes who disassembled parts of the railroad while it was being built by the American government. Captain John W. Gunnison was killed by Native Americans when surveying the planned sites for the railroad, but the scouting of the routes was continued and finished by other lieutenants and captains of the Union. Despite native efforts to curtail the production of train tracks, the railroad was built through native land, greatly displacing the natives from their land, along with the reduction of their natural resources such as buffalo and other livestock (DPLA).

Additionally, the future President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, supported building the railroad along the 35th parallel to the west of California (LOC).

Lessons Learned/Takeaways
After the railroad was completed, the price to travel across the country dropped to one-hundred, fifty dollars. [9 ]

The effort also cut the three thousand mile journey across the country, from a journey once slightly over a month, to once the project was completed, under a week.

Connecting the country's coasts made the movement of Western goods to Eastern ports (or vice versa) almost seamless.

Abraham Lincoln realized his campaign goal of building the transcontinental railroad (although he was unfortunately unable to see the railroad complete, this also unified the country and moved the country westward to cover the entire country, which was Lincoln’s ultimate goal.

This project, finally, made the expansion of the country further westward almost a known quantity, allowing there to be heightened tensions between westward settlers and indigenous tribes.

Discussion Questions
How would westward expansion have looked if the proposition for the railroad hadn’t made it through congress?

How was trade impacted by the construction of the railroad and what goods would be lost without it?

How were the politics between the US and Asian Countries impacted by this railroad?