RAILROADS BUILT AMERICA
Completed in 1869, the first transcontinental railroad linked existing eastern rail networks with the Pacific coast by rail, dramatically changing travel, commerce, settlement and communication across the United States.
The 1869 joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, created the first continuous rail connection between the existing eastern rail network and the Pacific coast. It transformed travel, communication and commerce across enormous distances.
Federal legislation supported construction through land grants and financing mechanisms. Railroad corporations supplied management, capital, engineering and labor, while the public policies behind the project created long-lasting economic and political consequences.
Construction depended on thousands of workers, including large numbers of Chinese laborers on the Central Pacific and Irish and other immigrant workers on the Union Pacific. They worked through mountains, deserts and severe weather under dangerous conditions.
Railroad expansion accelerated settlement, commercial hunting and federal control across the West. For many Native nations, the railroad era brought loss of land, disruption of traditional economies and intensified military and political pressure.
Manufactured goods could move west while agricultural products, minerals and other resources moved toward distant markets. Additional transcontinental routes soon followed, making railroads fundamental to national economic integration.
The ceremonial joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific took place at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, on May 10, 1869. The event became a symbol of a new coast-to-coast transportation era, even though the national rail network continued to expand and change afterward.
The project depended on a large and diverse labor force. Chinese workers made up a major share of the Central Pacific workforce, while Union Pacific crews included many immigrants, Civil War veterans and other laborers. The work was difficult and dangerous, especially in mountain terrain.
The railroad reduced travel time, expanded national markets and accelerated settlement and development in the West. Those changes also carried severe consequences, including disruption and dispossession for Native peoples and communities whose lands and ways of life were transformed by railroad expansion.
KEEP EXPLORING
MORE TO DISCOVER
Ask about construction, workers, routes, economic effects and the human consequences of westward railroad expansion.