American Railroad Coast to Coast

In 1835 Senator Chase of Ohio introduced a Bill to the United States Congress to provide a survey of four routes for a railroad to link the nation from coast to coast; Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, initiated reconnaissance for five other routes; and two years later Stephen A. Douglas promoted another Bill to provide three further routes—but, though interest and speculation was considerable and much research was done, no positive action was taken to build a railroad to link the eastern and western states of the United States.

In 1861 the beginning of the Civil War made clear the vulnerability of the nearly isolated west coast. It was national defence, rather than anything else, that led to the passing of the Enabling Act, signed by Abraham Lincoln on 1st July 1862, which created the 'Union Pacific Railroad Company, authorising it to 'lay out, construct, furnish and maintain and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph line, with the appurtenances, from a point on the 100th meridian of longitude west from Greenwich between the south margin of the valley of the Republican river and the north margin of the valley of the Platte in the Territory of Nebraska to the western boundary of Nevada Territory.'

The Act also provided for a connection between a point on the western boundary of the state of Iowa and the 100th meridian, and provided for land grants and bond issues to help finance the railroad.

The railroad received a strip of land, 130 yards wide, along its whole length, and in addition a further grant of 3,000 acres of land, to be freely selected by the railroad authorities within ten miles of the tracks, was made for every mile of line. There was still difficulty in raising money and by Act of 2nd July 1864 Lincoln doubled the land grants.

There was disagreement from the start. The engineers thought that the line should connect with a 4 ft. 82 in- gauge line east of Missouri, but California already had a five-foot gauge railway. Lincoln supported their demand for a five-foot gauge on the new line, but Congress prescribed the standard gauge. (In the circumstances Congress was right, but if the choice could be made today a wide gauge would probably be chosen.)

The first sod was cut at Sacramento, California on 22nd February 1863. But in the east there were more complications. Lincoln had specified a place called Council Bluffs, across river from Omaha, as the Missouri railhead. The engineers preferred Bellevue, a few miles farther south, and started construction there. $100,000 had been spent before the President forced them to stop. Construction from Council Bluffs began on 2nd December 1863, but the first rail was not laid until July 1865. The task was formidable. Raw materials, including 6,250 sleepers and 50,000 tons of rails, had to be carried over hundreds of miles from the east by ox cart, or by boat up the Missouri River.

As the railroad grew the rails were brought up to the end of the line on an open truck drawn by two horses, which were then unhitched and a single small horse used. A crew of five men stood on each side of the track. At a command from the foreman each crew seized a rail from the back of the truck, pulled it out to its full length and, at the foreman's shout of 'Down,' placed it on the sleepers. A man at the far end checked and adjusted the width between the rails and the horse moved forward pulling the truck over the newly laid rail, the process being repeated until the load of thirty rails had all been laid.

Following close behind the layers came the teams who spiked the rails to the sleepers. An average of two miles was laid each day.

When they reached the plains the construction teams came under Native American attack. The Native Americans were right in seeing the railroad as an enemy. It opened up new territory and made possible the extinction of the bison herds, destroying the Native Americans' hunting grounds and rapidly leading to their confinement in reservations. But the Native Americans made pioneering a railroad a dangerous occupation.

The construction gangs had to take everything they needed with them, and every few miles a.new 'end of track' town sprang up, complete with saloons and gambling houses operated by hangers-on who saw an easy way of making money out of the isolated railroad men. This traveling community was given the name of 'Hell on Wheels', and at one stage got so rough that the army at Fort D. A. Russell in Wyoming was called in to restore order. The entire 'population' was run out of town and only permitted to return when arrangements had been made to ensure that in future the community would be orderly.

In 1867 the line reached an altitude of 8,247 feet at Sherman Hill as it crossed the Rocky Mountains. Meanwhile the Central Pacific Company was following the watercourses up the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Originally it had been planned that they should only build the line as far as the boundary of California, but permission was obtained to continue eastward to meet the other company and they pressed on across Nevada to the Great Salt Lake.

Both companies pushed forward, eager for the grants of land that more line built would give. They met early in 1869 in Western Utah, but neither company would acknowledge the fact. Both went on building line at speed. Congress debated ways of stopping this pointless competition. After 225 miles of double track had been laid agreement was reached and the link was made on 10th May 1869.

The ceremony opened with a prayer, then the spikes of silver and gold and a special sleeper, which were to be used for the formal completion of the line, were presented and all except the final golden spike were driven home.

Governor Sandford, the President of Central Pacific, raised his maul, which had been wired so that by telegraph its blows would ring the fire alarm of the Tower in San Francisco and the bell of the Capitol in Washington, signalling to all America that the railway was complete. Governor Sandford struck; and missed, as did Dr. Durant who struck the next blow. Other guests were invited to tap the spike and it fell into place in the hole bored for it.

Two locomotives, Jupiter and 119, were unhooked from their trains and moved forward until their cowcatchers touched and bottles of champagne were broken. Then, hooked up again, the trains took it in turns to cross the rails. The ceremonial spikes and sleeper were then quickly removed and replaced by conventional materials; but the new sleeper was soon torn to pieces by souvenir hunters, and half a dozen more - and two rails - had to be replaced in the next six months.