On May 10, 1869, as the last spike was driven in the Utah desert, the blows were heard across the country. Telegraph wires wrapped around spike and sledgehammer transmitted the impact instantaneously east and west. In San Francisco and New York, wires had been connected to cannons facing outward across the ocean. When the signal from the spike came through, the cannons fired. The world was put on notice: the transcontinental railroad was completed and America was moving to the forefront of the world's stage.
The World Grew Smaller
One day later, the first transcontinental freight train rumbled out of California on its way to the east coast. It carried in its hold an emissary of the Asian markets: a shipment of Japanese teas. On May 15, though the road required hundreds of thousands of dollars in patchwork along its length, regular passenger service opened for business. Travelers could make the trip between San Francisco and New York in a week. No longer did passengers or cargo have to take the treacherous route across ocean and Panama that had killed railroad advocate Theodore Judah. The coasts were connected -- and the world as Americans knew it had grown smaller.
A Competing Canal
Railroad pioneer Asa Whitney had once dreamed an iron route would re-center the world toward America, making it a conduit of exchange between Asia and Europe. In this sense, his vision of the grand project remained unfulfilled. Just six months after the meeting at Promontory Summit, workers half the world away consummated their own monumental feat of engineering. Opened in November, 1869, Egypt's Suez Canal linked Asia and India to Europe by a single waterway, thus ensuring that exchange between the two regions would continue to circumvent American soil.
The Transcontinental Railroad Acts, also known as the Pacific Railroad acts, were acts passed in the early 1860s to encourage the construction of the transcontinental railroad. Construction was incentivized by giving land and bonds to the railroad companies.
There was an increase in population in the American interior
The construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad started in 1863 and was finished in 1869. When it was first completed, it was known as the Pacific Railroad.
Yes Abraham Lincoln did get employed for help building the first transcontinental railroad
1869
the population of the west increased
it shifted westward
Tech Effect - 2004 Transcontinental Railroad 1-9 was released on: USA: 17 August 2004
The Chinese started building the Transcontinental railroad in 1863 and the Transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869.
The first transcontinental railroad was funded with government money.
why did they build the transcontinental railroad
a railroad that runs across the contient... the transcontinental railroad is a railroad that reaches from North Carolina to California.
The Transcontinental Railroad Acts, also known as the Pacific Railroad acts, were acts passed in the early 1860s to encourage the construction of the transcontinental railroad. Construction was incentivized by giving land and bonds to the railroad companies.
Asa Whitney thought of the Transcontinental Railroad after the Lewis and Clark expedition.
The Transcontinental Railroad was finished on May 10, 1869.
The transcontinental railroad ended in Utah with a golden spike and bronze spike.
Goods produced in one region could be sent to another and sold.