What made the transcontinental railroad possible?
One year into the Civil War, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act (1862), guaranteeing public land grants and loans to the two railroads it chose to build the transcontinental line, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific.
How was the transcontinental railroad built?
The transcontinental railroad was built in six years almost entirely by hand. Workers drove spikes into mountains, filled the holes with black powder, and blasted through the rock inch by inch. They placed explosives in each hole, lit the fuses, and were, hopefully, pulled up before the powder was detonated.
Which US president did Theodore Judah convince to create the Pacific Railroad Act?
President Abraham Lincoln
By 1861, Judah had enlisted a group of investors in Sacramento to form the Central Pacific Railroad Company. He then headed to Washington, where he was able to convince congressional leaders as well as President Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law the following year.
How was the transcontinental railroad built and paid for?
The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants. Construction was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds.
Where did Theodore Judah get the idea for the transcontinental railroad?
Back in California in the summer of 1860, Judah received a letter from a storekeeper in the Sierra foothills, Daniel Strong, who told him about an old, unused wagon road through the Donner Pass. They formed a partnership and began meeting with investors in Sacramento.
Where did Theodore Judah do most of his work?
After studying briefly at Rensselaer, Judah went to work on a number of railroads in the Northeast, including engineering for the Niagara Gorge Railroad. He was elected member of the American Society of Civil Engineers on May 1853; at that time there were fewer than 800 civil engineers in the United States.
Where did Theodore Judah build the Sacramento Valley Railroad?
Judah was hired in 1854 at age 28 as the Chief Engineer for the Sacramento Valley Railroad in California. He and his wife Anne sailed to Nicaragua, crossed over to the Pacific, and caught a steamer to San Francisco. Under his charge, it became the first railroad built west of the Mississippi River.
When did Theodore Judah go to the Pacific Coast?
In 1854 Judah found himself invited to a New York meeting. Returning home, he informed his wife, “Anna, I am going to California to be the pioneering railroad engineer of the Pacific coast.”