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U.S. Landmark Books #9
The Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad
180 pages, Hardcover
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 29, 2024
This volume was a good introduction to the building of the US transcontinental railroad, the first Transportation Revolution in America. The second would be the rise in private automobile ownership and the building of the US Interstate highway system, nearly a century later. The first transcontinental railroad was actually built in Panama, in 1855, but the US project was a far more ambitious endeavor: the goal was to link the East coast with the West coast. The completion of a section of railway from Omaha to Alameda, which effectively connected the two coasts, was finally completed on Sept. 6, 1869.
The US has often been described as lagging far behind in its investment in railroad construction, especially compared to Europe, but that's a more modern phenomenon. Perhaps it is also due to the fact that nearly an entire third of the US lies at rather extreme altitude, making construction and maintenance of track expensive and risky. That was the challenge faced by the Union Pacific Railroad, as the book addresses, which had to find a way to lay track over the formidable Sierra Nevada mountains, compared to the Central Pacific Railroad, which laid miles of track a day. Notwithstanding the hardships, the First Transportation Revolution essentially opened up the West, creating a single united nation, from sea to shining sea.
As early as the late eighteenth century, the notion of having a sea-to-sea railway network fascinated entrepreneurs and government officials alike, but for almost half a century, the idea was thought to be untenable. That changed in the mid-nineteenth century, especially after the Civil War, with advances in steam technology, when it was proved that trains pulled by steam engines could make it over tall mountains safely and efficiently.
Due to financial shortfalls created by the Civil War, however, it was also decided that private interests would be responsible for construction of a section of track that would link the existing eastern US rail network with the Pacific coast, specifically Oakland Long Wharf on the San Francisco Bay. The railroad companies were some of the first "corporations" in the US, which had to effectively manage materials, labor, and even land acquisition, requiring even new systems of accounting to manage funds and outlays.
The consequences of the US Transcontinental Railroad cannot be overstated: first, the rail lines essentially opened up the American west, resulting in the rapid settlement of the so-called "Great American Desert," which was anything but. Settlers found good farming land teeming with game, timber, and, occasionally precious metals such as gold and silver.
Although the railroads undoubtedly saved many lives, mostly those of settlers who elected to travel by rail rather than overland in covered wagons, construction of the Western section of railway resulted in many unintended consequences, not all of which were positive. As many have noted, the blessings of civilization are mixed, and the construction of a sea-to-see railroad which brought vast numbers of new inhabitants to the wild and undeveloped lands in the West was no exception.
First, the need for labor resulted in mass immigration, primarily of Chinese workers in the west and Irish in the East. Many newly-freed slaves also labored on the railroads in the East. The first team of Chinese railroad workers consisted of a team of only twenty-one men, who first arrived in the US in 1864. That number soon grew, however, until Chinese workers comprised some ninety percent of the workforce in the West, ultimately totaling perhaps twenty thousand.
Despite some rough beginnings (Chinese and black laborers earned only about half of what white laborers did), which at one point resulted in the largest labor stoppage in American history up to that time on account of the poor pay, dangerous working conditions, and poor living conditions, many immigrants remained after the railroad was built, choosing to make their lives in the US. San Francisco's Chinatown is a remnant of those days, which served as a staging point for newly-arrived immigrants brought in to build the railroad.
The connection of the Eastern and Western lines made transporting passengers and goods far quicker, safer and less expensive, which largely spelled the demise of the stagecoach lines. Owners put up a bitter fight to maintain their monopoly on overland transportation, but to no avail. Cities which served as staging points for wagon trains, such as Independence, Missouri, also changed dramatically, as fewer and fewer settlers attempted the dangerous and expensive overland routes via the Oregon and California trails, as trains were much safer, quicker and less costly.
The sea shipping companies, which had long ferried passengers and goods around the tip of South America, also lobbied hard to prevent railway construction, ultimately to no avail as well. In fact, much of the building materials had had to be transported this way, as there were no iron mills or manufacturing facilities in the Western US sufficient to supply the amount of material needed to construct hundreds of miles of track. The efforts of the shipping lines were also stymied by the building of the Panama railway and later, the Panama canal.
The Transcontinental Railroad also resulted in a reworking of US federal land policy, ushering in a complex system for purchasing, granting and conveying of public land. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, for example - which was based on an earlier bill in 1856 - authorized land grants for new rail lines to "aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific Ocean." The government granted millions of acres to railroad companies, much of which was inhabited by Native Americans. New towns thus sprung up almost overnight, several of which still exist, to cater to the needs of new settlers and the railroad builders. Civilization arrived in these far-flung regions almost in the blink of an eye.
Unfortunately, rapid transportation also resulted in the ravaging of the country's natural resources, especially timber, for nearly a half-century. By the turn of the 20th century, bison, which had at the turn of the previous century numbered possibly fifty million, were on the brink of extinction. Old-growth forests were being felled at an alarming rate, which led to erosion and the deterioration of untold hundreds of thousands of acres of prime forest land. "Conservation" efforts were not undertaken by the government in any systematic way until the early twentieth century, but in many cases, it was too little too late. Only vestiges remain of the world which existed at the time the railway was build.
The consequences for Native Americans were equally dire. The government's view of indigenous peoples had long been that they were little more than a nuisance, to be shuffled off to ever more remote regions whenever white settlers demanded more land. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 had already forced some 60,000 Native Americans, representing some twenty tribes, from their ancestral homelands to regions west of the Mississippi River. These alien, newly-allocated lands were primarily located in "Indian Territory," now the state of Oklahoma, and Kansas. With only a few exceptions, this Act emptied all states east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes of their Native American populations.
The building of the Transcontinental Railroad was equally devastating for Native Americans in the West. Many seemed to sense that the railroad was a threat to their way of life. Early surveyors and builders were frequently attacked by native warriors when they ventured into their territory. The sheer numbers of builders and support personnel soon overwhelmed the indigenous populations, however, leaving them with little means of resistance. As stated, much of the land granted to railroad companies had formerly belonged to indigenous peoples, and track was laid across fifteen tribal homelands.
The worst effect of railroad construction for Native peoples was the utter decimation of bison populations, which were heavily relied upon by Plains tribes, including the Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne. Due to the loss of their primary means of sustenance, indigenous peoples resorted more and more frequently to raiding railroad camps, which disrupted construction. As a result, the US government sent in the military to protect private investment, including even the famous general William Tecumseh Sherman, the famed Civil War figure. Encounters between the army and Natives sometimes escalated into attacks on their villages, such as the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre which killed 200 people, mostly women and children.
It's gratifying to see that this book didn't exhibit a "triumphalist" view of the railroad, choosing instead to present both the positive and negative aspects of the building of the railroad and the changes it ushered in. It did an admirable job of describing the heroic efforts of the builders, including immigrants, but it also highlighted the many negative effects on the land, environment, wildlife and native peoples.
Some of the language is also dated (such as calling indigenous people "red men," etc.) and should be discussed with young readers, but this volume presented a good overview of the material in a balanced way, much more than I was expecting, considering the time period in which it was written.
The US has often been described as lagging far behind in its investment in railroad construction, especially compared to Europe, but that's a more modern phenomenon. Perhaps it is also due to the fact that nearly an entire third of the US lies at rather extreme altitude, making construction and maintenance of track expensive and risky. That was the challenge faced by the Union Pacific Railroad, as the book addresses, which had to find a way to lay track over the formidable Sierra Nevada mountains, compared to the Central Pacific Railroad, which laid miles of track a day. Notwithstanding the hardships, the First Transportation Revolution essentially opened up the West, creating a single united nation, from sea to shining sea.
As early as the late eighteenth century, the notion of having a sea-to-sea railway network fascinated entrepreneurs and government officials alike, but for almost half a century, the idea was thought to be untenable. That changed in the mid-nineteenth century, especially after the Civil War, with advances in steam technology, when it was proved that trains pulled by steam engines could make it over tall mountains safely and efficiently.
Due to financial shortfalls created by the Civil War, however, it was also decided that private interests would be responsible for construction of a section of track that would link the existing eastern US rail network with the Pacific coast, specifically Oakland Long Wharf on the San Francisco Bay. The railroad companies were some of the first "corporations" in the US, which had to effectively manage materials, labor, and even land acquisition, requiring even new systems of accounting to manage funds and outlays.
The consequences of the US Transcontinental Railroad cannot be overstated: first, the rail lines essentially opened up the American west, resulting in the rapid settlement of the so-called "Great American Desert," which was anything but. Settlers found good farming land teeming with game, timber, and, occasionally precious metals such as gold and silver.
Although the railroads undoubtedly saved many lives, mostly those of settlers who elected to travel by rail rather than overland in covered wagons, construction of the Western section of railway resulted in many unintended consequences, not all of which were positive. As many have noted, the blessings of civilization are mixed, and the construction of a sea-to-see railroad which brought vast numbers of new inhabitants to the wild and undeveloped lands in the West was no exception.
First, the need for labor resulted in mass immigration, primarily of Chinese workers in the west and Irish in the East. Many newly-freed slaves also labored on the railroads in the East. The first team of Chinese railroad workers consisted of a team of only twenty-one men, who first arrived in the US in 1864. That number soon grew, however, until Chinese workers comprised some ninety percent of the workforce in the West, ultimately totaling perhaps twenty thousand.
Despite some rough beginnings (Chinese and black laborers earned only about half of what white laborers did), which at one point resulted in the largest labor stoppage in American history up to that time on account of the poor pay, dangerous working conditions, and poor living conditions, many immigrants remained after the railroad was built, choosing to make their lives in the US. San Francisco's Chinatown is a remnant of those days, which served as a staging point for newly-arrived immigrants brought in to build the railroad.
The connection of the Eastern and Western lines made transporting passengers and goods far quicker, safer and less expensive, which largely spelled the demise of the stagecoach lines. Owners put up a bitter fight to maintain their monopoly on overland transportation, but to no avail. Cities which served as staging points for wagon trains, such as Independence, Missouri, also changed dramatically, as fewer and fewer settlers attempted the dangerous and expensive overland routes via the Oregon and California trails, as trains were much safer, quicker and less costly.
The sea shipping companies, which had long ferried passengers and goods around the tip of South America, also lobbied hard to prevent railway construction, ultimately to no avail as well. In fact, much of the building materials had had to be transported this way, as there were no iron mills or manufacturing facilities in the Western US sufficient to supply the amount of material needed to construct hundreds of miles of track. The efforts of the shipping lines were also stymied by the building of the Panama railway and later, the Panama canal.
The Transcontinental Railroad also resulted in a reworking of US federal land policy, ushering in a complex system for purchasing, granting and conveying of public land. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, for example - which was based on an earlier bill in 1856 - authorized land grants for new rail lines to "aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific Ocean." The government granted millions of acres to railroad companies, much of which was inhabited by Native Americans. New towns thus sprung up almost overnight, several of which still exist, to cater to the needs of new settlers and the railroad builders. Civilization arrived in these far-flung regions almost in the blink of an eye.
Unfortunately, rapid transportation also resulted in the ravaging of the country's natural resources, especially timber, for nearly a half-century. By the turn of the 20th century, bison, which had at the turn of the previous century numbered possibly fifty million, were on the brink of extinction. Old-growth forests were being felled at an alarming rate, which led to erosion and the deterioration of untold hundreds of thousands of acres of prime forest land. "Conservation" efforts were not undertaken by the government in any systematic way until the early twentieth century, but in many cases, it was too little too late. Only vestiges remain of the world which existed at the time the railway was build.
The consequences for Native Americans were equally dire. The government's view of indigenous peoples had long been that they were little more than a nuisance, to be shuffled off to ever more remote regions whenever white settlers demanded more land. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 had already forced some 60,000 Native Americans, representing some twenty tribes, from their ancestral homelands to regions west of the Mississippi River. These alien, newly-allocated lands were primarily located in "Indian Territory," now the state of Oklahoma, and Kansas. With only a few exceptions, this Act emptied all states east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes of their Native American populations.
The building of the Transcontinental Railroad was equally devastating for Native Americans in the West. Many seemed to sense that the railroad was a threat to their way of life. Early surveyors and builders were frequently attacked by native warriors when they ventured into their territory. The sheer numbers of builders and support personnel soon overwhelmed the indigenous populations, however, leaving them with little means of resistance. As stated, much of the land granted to railroad companies had formerly belonged to indigenous peoples, and track was laid across fifteen tribal homelands.
The worst effect of railroad construction for Native peoples was the utter decimation of bison populations, which were heavily relied upon by Plains tribes, including the Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne. Due to the loss of their primary means of sustenance, indigenous peoples resorted more and more frequently to raiding railroad camps, which disrupted construction. As a result, the US government sent in the military to protect private investment, including even the famous general William Tecumseh Sherman, the famed Civil War figure. Encounters between the army and Natives sometimes escalated into attacks on their villages, such as the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre which killed 200 people, mostly women and children.
It's gratifying to see that this book didn't exhibit a "triumphalist" view of the railroad, choosing instead to present both the positive and negative aspects of the building of the railroad and the changes it ushered in. It did an admirable job of describing the heroic efforts of the builders, including immigrants, but it also highlighted the many negative effects on the land, environment, wildlife and native peoples.
Some of the language is also dated (such as calling indigenous people "red men," etc.) and should be discussed with young readers, but this volume presented a good overview of the material in a balanced way, much more than I was expecting, considering the time period in which it was written.
September 5, 2023
2 on research, 2 on logic, 2 on style, 2 on weight, one on affections. Highly interesting, as engaging a treatise as could be writ on such a topic.
November 17, 2025
The building of a railroad across North America in the 1800’s was a massive, manly, amazing engineering feat.
June 4, 2013
This is a great account of the policy behind and the building of the first transcontinental railroad in North America for young adult readers. Being for young adults, a lot of the very boring details are excluded, which likely makes it more fun for someone who doesn't know much about railroads to read. While reading the book I had to remind myself the book was written in 1950 because the description of Native Americans seemed somewhat progressive.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews