The Transcontinental Railroad By Lily

The transcontinental railroad was a great event in our history. The first steam engine was invented in 1698. Thomas Savery invented a steam engine that was later raced against a horse named Lightning. In this race the steam engine proved to a good form of transportation. The bad thing is, they were very uncomfortable. The smoke and sparks were not well contained. Most passengers were burnt by the sparks. Many people got holes in their clothes. Before the transcontinental was built, there were serious renovations to make rides comfy. The train was a big event, but how did it start? Did it have any issues? Where was it? Read to find out.

The railroad was a great idea. This is what most people thought. Transcontinental railroad. America as a whole loved it. “It will help slavery spread to the new territories!” cried the south. “ It can help end slavery!” cried the north. Both did not want to give up. There was also the issue of finding a path that did not run into a stream, river, lake, or canyon. Grenville Dodge found the best route. This route followed the Platte river in Nebraska. The only flaw to the route was that it went through native american land. The builders had to remove natives from their territory. The Sioux, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Arapaho were tribes in the way. They would not leave the land they had lived on for generation after generation. So, they fought unrelentingly. The workers fought as long as they could but eventually they had to call help. The U.S army had to be sent to move the natives. The government and president Lincoln created the Pacific railroad act. Then when it was official, the government asked the Central and Union Pacific railroad companies to build the tracks. The offer was, the more track laid, the more money the companies made. That is how the famous project began.

Who worked on the rails you ask? Well, The two companies were the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. The Central Pacific employed mostly chinese immigrants.They were paid $1 a day. By the end of the building, there were 12,000 chinese immigrants working on the rails. The Centrals had the hard job. They had to work through the Sierra Nevada mountains. On the other hand, the Union had to work across the open plains, which isn't that bad. They had mostly Irish workers. The Irish were paid $35 but they were paid every month not day. Also, railroad officials stole money and got richer by the day. The supplies they gave the workers were not save or good quality, so most of the rails that ere built were not safe to put a train on. You would think the officials spent money on better rails. They spent it on themselves! How greedy and selfish.

You know who built the transcontinental railroad, but how did they build it? There were four main jobs. Surveyor, graders, hammerers, and track layers. Surveyor is by far the most important. The surveyor maps the route. They make sure that the workers don’t get off the route. They are usually in the front. Then there are grades this is by far the most dangerous job. Graders were mostly in the Central Pacific crew. These are the guys that blasted through the mountains. They placed TNT in little holes to make tunnels through the mountains. The longest tunnel is Summit tunnel at 1,659 feet long! TNT was not the best method though. It was very effective, but many workers died blasting. THey couldn’t get away in time and were blown up with the rock. After the graders clear the way, Track layers, well, lay track where the surveyor tells them to. This seems easy but they also had to carry he rais. One rail weighed 560 pounds! After the track is laid hammerers come through and pound spikes into holes. This holds the rail down. This is how the rails were built.

The end is upon us. The two sides were both very close to the middle or ,in this case, the end. They decided to meet at Promontory Summit, Utah. It was a race to the finish. The Irish laid ten miles of track a day.When both met at the center they sent both companies locomotives up the track. The Centrals Jupiter and Unions number 119 met as well. As a ceremony, Railroad officials drove a gold spike into the ground. The spike is no longer in the ground, but in a museum. The telegraph sent the message, “Done” while the newspapers wrote, “Wedding of the Rails.” The railroad was finished seven years ahead of schedule. The Central team layed 700 miles of track and the Union team lead 1,000.The rails could carry 20,000 people 1,776 miles. A ticket was from $136 to $2,288 dollars. It depended on the class and seller. In the first ten years of being completed, the train shipped 50,000 dollars worth of goods. That is the end.

I have told you the basics but to be a surveyor you need more information. You are about a spike hammerer. This means you know some, but not that much. There are tons of good sources that will give you more information. I hope you learned something. (If you didn’t, please reread the paper.) Thank you for reading, but my trains a leaving, and I gotta go. Bye.