Pacific Railway Act Signed into Law: Transcontinental Railroad Construction Funded - Essay Sample

Introduction

The pacific railway act was signed into law on July 1, 1862, by President Abraham Lincoln after a decade long argument surrounding transcontinental railroad construction. However, with inescapable popularity, the act adjourned through the balances and checks of the United States government. Telegraph Company and Union Pacific Railroad as a private entity was created through the authorization of the act and a framework set forth on how the transcontinental railroad would be organized and funded (Devin 8). Starting in Nebraska, the Union Pacific was tasked with constructing half of the transcontinental railroad as the distance was far too high for one company to manage. The central pacific road was given the task of building the other half from California and through the treacherous mountains of Sierra Nevada, one of the most challenging terrains along the journey (Devin 9). Completion of the first transcontinental railroad in America would be signaled by the meeting of the two different tracks.

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According to Hoyt, transcontinental Railroad was the most exceptional engineering project ever attempted, endorsed by President Lincoln, that would substantially change America. Risks that would take growing pressures of some thirty years were obligated to private entities. A peek at Panama transmitted the degree of the traffic between two communities in America and exposed the desperate urgency for a railroad across the Greatest American Desert. Transits from Panama to San Francisco were more than 375,000 people, while streams from isthmus to the other direction were some 225,000. Also, gold and silver from western mines worth $700 million were obtained as scores from the Westerns. For a fact, California gold shipments of $185million kept the government of President Lincoln in the first three of the civil war solvent enough to preserve the Union. Traveling across Panama was a risk worth taking compared to the 17,000-mile long voyage around Cape Horn.

The building of the first transcontinental railroad by the United States is a uniquely American story. The story has all the hallmarks of great danger, hardship, greed, conflict, high drama, and unstoppable drive to achieve a goal. Relentless desire to conquer the landmass from the East Coast to West Coast is what spawned the construction of the transcontinental railroad. According to John, O'Sullivan, Expansion was the main motive of the transcontinental railroad. The railroad's legacy is higher than just an increase in business wealth and marketplaces. The legacy of the transcontinental railroad is the new cities that started as plains wiped clear of the endless herds of American buffalo, as railroad camps, of the near extinction tribes such as Cheyenne and Sioux of native American, and ultimately of modern America( Xina and Houghton 7). Communication and countrywide travel became possible as a result of the completion of the transcontinental railroad and a connection in the isolated and scattered settlements west of Mississippi. Also, political events, cultural events, scientific happenings, and political notions could be reported over telegraph wires instantaneously. Railroads transported products like cattle with increasing efficiency and speed during a national marketplace (Xina and Houghton 6). The railroad spurred new types of corporations, which made federal stock exchange possible, but more importantly, it drove business powerhouses to come.

According to Kozak and Procter, the building of the transcontinental railroad in the nineteenth century was the most significant infrastructure project. Entrepreneurial commercial partnerships set up by the leadership of the US government enabled innovation in the project, and this allowed the US government to conquer substantial risks and succeed. Partnerships and commercial relationships supported by governments act financing was critical to consider to take on the project due to the magnitude of the risk involved as the private sector was unable to take such a project. The project was concluded seven years before the schedule. Development of the US as a global economic power and growth of America's economy spanned significantly due to the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

Cultural and physical terrain across the western and central United States was forever altered as the transcontinental railroad yielded enormous impact that many had anticipated and forecasted. Detailed planning, workforce, equipment, and massive amounts of money were required to build the transcontinental railroad. Still, after years of construction, the United States had a continuous railroad system all across the North American Continent (Therese 8). The construction of the transcontinental railroad was as monumental as the cost incurred, and the federal government funded the project through a joint venture with the private sector, the largest at the time. The vast area of land wanted by the United States from France, Mexico, Russia, Great Britain, and Spain came to the possession of the United States; however due to the vast new territory claimed, there was a severe problem in the governance of the new regions (Therese 13). A reliable and quick way to transport people and goods through the Nation was through the transcontinental railroad that could move people and goods between the Nations eastern and western territories. Rapidly expanding the US would be kept together through the railroad and would enable more people to explore into the wilderness and be able to create new, productive communities between the settles West and east coasts.

Construction of the transcontinental railroad enabled communication between the east and west coast through the erection of telegraph wires that was enacted beside the rail bed. Surveillance in weather observing, secrecy, military strategies, especially in conflicts with American Indians and telegraph extensions into other frontier areas such as Alaska with widely varying climates, were among the results of the construction of the railroad. Also, telegraphy played an essential role in the field of history, such as anthropological observations and collection of natural history on telegraph expeditions (Vetter 3). Environmental factors altered the story and functioning of the telegraph as an instrument of political control and state power, primarily through the military.

American cultural identity was defined by the need to civilize the space of the West at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a result, westward expansion was often violent throughout the continent, later identified as Manifest destiny was the goal of the American government and its institutions as well as the minds of the average Americans (Devin 6). The unification of the United States by mechanical means reorganized politics and fashioned the national economy. Still, more importantly, the visual picture of America was shaped by the mechanical camera that followed its progress. (Devin 17). Structures of power, including Capitalist and government institutions, were celebrated due to the capability of significant improvement.

Conclusion

In conclusion, opening up the West to more rapid development was a result of the building of the transcontinental railroad. Time for making 3000 miles across the United States was cut to weeks from a matter of months with completion of tracks. Industrial exports of western resources to eastern markets became more accessible than before by connecting the two American coasts. As a result, the United States became a global economic power.

Works Cited

DeVries, Devin. "The metropolis of the West": the camera, the locomotive, and the imagined West in the making of modern America. Diss. Rutgers University-Graduate School-Newark, 2018. https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3F76GZ5

Harasymiw, Therese. The Transcontinental Railroad: Connecting the Nation. Greenhaven Publishing LLC, 2017.

John Hoyt W, J. A Great and Shining Road. https://books.google.co.ke/books? "Transcontinental railroad building" Retrieved 5 May 2020.

Kozak-Holland, Mark, and Chris Procter. "Chapter Case Study 2: The Transcontinental Railroad." Managing Transformation Projects. Palgrave Pivot, Cham, 2020. 47-75. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33035-4_4

Uhl, Xina M., and Gillian Houghton. A Primary Source Investigation of the Transcontinental Railroad. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, 2018.

Vetter, Jeremy. "Wired into Nature: The Telegraph and the North American Frontier by James Schwoch." Technology and Culture 60.1 (2019): 333-335. https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2019.0017