How did railroad companies get 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.
How did the federal government encourage railroad companies to speed up their construction?
The government encouraged the building of the transcontinental railroad by passing the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 and by offering land to railroad companies for every mile of track laid by that railroad company.
How much land did the railroads get?
The total of public land grants given to the railroads by states and the federal government was about 180 million acres. At the time, the value of this land was about one dollar per acre, which was the average price realized by the government for sales in the land grant states during that period.
What did the railroad do for America?
In addition to transporting western food crops and raw materials to East Coast markets and manufactured goods from East Coast cities to the West Coast, the railroad also facilitated international trade. The first freight train to travel eastward from California carried a load of Japanese tea.
Did Mormons work on Transcontinental Railroad?
Mormon labor on the transcontinental railroad mirrored the organization of the LDS Church. Brigham Young called local bishops to be head contractors and gave them a section of track to build. Both railroads needed laborers to win the race to Promontory Point.
When did the government give the railroads land?
Draw two parallel lines on each side of the railroad route, each ten miles to the left and right. Those lines become the land grant boundaries. Under the 1862 law, the Federal government gave railroads all odd-numbered sections within the boundaries.
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.
How many miles of railroads were built before 1871?
(6) Railroad land sales to individuals were usually recorded appropriately in county land offices. Prior to 1871, only 45,000 miles of track existed in the US. Between 1871 and 1900, another 170,000 miles were laid. Surprisingly, only 18,738 miles of this track was built as a direct result of land grants and loans.
How did railroads qualify for the Pacific Railway Act?
To qualify for the subsidies a company had to agree to actually build track or forfeit the grant, and carry mail, government passengers, and freight at reduced rates. Most of the loans and land grants distributed under the Pacific Railway Act went to the first five companies that built transcontinental lines.