How did railroads get their land?
[18] Usually the companies received from the federal government, in twenty- or fifty-mile strips, alternate sections of public land for each mile of track that was built. Responsibility for surveying and mapping the grants fell to the U.S. General Land Office, now the Bureau of Land Management.
What act gave millions of acres to railroads?
In 1862 Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which designated the 32nd parallel as the initial transcontinental route and gave huge grants of lands for rights-of-way. Congress eventually authorized four transcontinental railroads and granted 174 million acres of public lands for rights-of-way.
How were the railroads funded?
Receiving millions of acres of public lands from Congress, the railroads were assured land on which to lay the tracks and land to sell, the proceeds of which helped companies finance the construction of their railroads. Not all railroads were built with government assistance, however.
Why was land near railroads so valuable?
Railroad grants Unlike per-mile subsidies which encouraged fast but shoddy track-laying, land grants encouraged higher quality work, since the railroads could increase the value of the land by building better track.
How much did it cost to build the railroads?
Later, much of the land was sold by the railroad companies at an average price of $2.81 per acre. (Proximity to the rails increased the value of the land.) These sales offset a portion of the construction costs, which have been estimated at approximately $168 million.
What was the total amount of land given to the railroads?
These were: the Union Pacific, the Central Pacific, the Northern Pacific, the Southern Pacific, and the Santa Fe. They received a total of 130 million acres of land, with the largest single grant (of 44 million acres) going to the Northern Pacific line. The states added another 50 million acres of land grants.
How did the state of Florida get land for railroads?
Thirty years earlier the State of Floridapurchased from the Federal Government’s Swamp and SubmergedLandsprogram millions of acres of land for public sale and railroad construction. The FloridaInternal Improvement Fundheld title to this land, but during the Civil War era its trustees found few customers except land speculators.
How much did the government loan to the railroads?
The government loaned a total of $64,623,512 to the transcontinental companies. These loans were for the most part paid back at six percent interest. The law also provided that a company could be given up to twenty sections (a section is a square mile) of land for every mile of track put down.