Section 2

Why a Transcontinental Railroad?

        -Encourage settlement of the West

        -Economic growth

Building the Railroad

        -2 companies would build TCRR

                -Given 20 square miles of land per 1 mile track

                        -Sell land to raise money to build track

                -Central Pacific

                        -Hired Chinese (10,000)

                        -Went eastward from California (1863)

                -Union Pacific

                        -Hired Civil War vets, Irish immigrants

                        -Went west from Omaha (1865)

        -Both companies met at Promontory, Utah

                -Gold spike set (1869)

Effects of the Railroad

        -Standard time developed (time zones)

        -Linked economies

                -Lumber, livestock from west brought to east

                -Finished goods from east brought to west

        -Spurred settlement of the west

                -Made possible settlement of remote areas

        -Decline of Indians