The Transcontinental Railroad 1862-1869

THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD1862-1869

The Two Railroads The Union Pacific

1. Built West, starting in Omaha, NE

2. Constructed by Irish Immigrants

3. Earned:

48K per mile over mts.

32K per mile over hills

16K per mile over plains

All rates doubled in a yr.

& Miles of Gov. Land

The Central Pacific

1. Built East, starting in Sacramento, CA

2. Constructed by Chinese Immigrants

3. Built through the Rocky Mts. and the Sierra Nevada Mts.

4. Charles Crocker was the man who introduced the Chinese to RR labor.

The Big Four 1. The four major

railroad companies in CA.

2. Leader was Leland Stanford (upper right) who was the majority shareholder of the Central Pacific.

3. As Senator of CA, Stanford won high paying contracts for the RR.

The Completed Railroad

The “Golden Spike”

Ogden, UT 1869 1. A Golden Spike

connected the two railroads.

2. The spike was connected to telegraph wires in the east.

3. Leland Stanford drove in the final spike.