The Transcontinental Railroad and Westward Expansion

The Transcontinental Railroad and Westward Expansion Thesis: The transcontinental railroad greatly increased Westward expansion in the United States of America during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The history of the United States has been influenced by England in many ways. In the second half of the 1800 s, the railroad, which was invented in England, had a major effect on Western expansion in the United States. Railroads were born in England, a country with dense populations, short distances between cities, and large financial resources. In America there were different circumstances, a sparse population in a huge country, large stretches between cities, and only the smallest amounts of money. (Railroad 85)†¦show more content†¦Then came the construction gangs who, working in shifts, graded (flattened) the land by as much as a hundred miles a stretch. Behind them came the track-laying crews, each consisting of ten thousand men and as many animals. For each mile of track, the government was loaning the railroad from $16,000, for flat land, to $48,000, for mountainous land (Railroad 86). The supplies needed to lay a single mile of track included forty train cars to carry four hundred tons of rail and timber, ties, bridgings, fuel, and food, which all had to be assembled in a depot on the Missouri River. But the Union Pacific had the twin advantages of comparatively flat land and a continuous supply line back to the factories of the East coast. It was quite different for the Central Pacific, which had to fetch most of its materials, except timber, by sea, twelve thousand miles around the tip of South America. Another difference between the two companies was their work-forces. The Eastern work gangs were recruited from immigrant Irish, poor Southern whites, and poor Southern blacks, while the Western crews came mostly from China. The Union Pacific was said to be sustained by whisky while the Central Pacific was said to be sustained by tea (Douglas 110). While the Easterners were racing through the prairie, the Westerners were stripping foothill forests, painfullyShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Transcontinental Railroad And Westward Expansion2649 Words   |  11 Pages The Transcontinental Railroad and Westward Expansion Thesis: The transcontinental railroad greatly increased Westward expansion in the United States of America during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The history of the United States has been influenced by England in many ways. In the second half of the 1800s, the railroad, which was invented in England, had a major effect on Western expansion in the United States. quot;Railroads were born in England, a country with dense populationsRead MoreManifest Destiny And Westward Expansion Essay1447 Words   |  6 Pages1) OUTLINE: I. Topic sentence. 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The Transcontinental Continental Railroad aided the settling of the west and closed the last of the remaining frontier, bringing newfound economicRead MoreEffects Of Westward Expansion715 Words   |  3 PagesWestward expansion was a time of successes and failures, a time celebrations and grief, a time full of life and death but in the end it shaped how America is the way is today. Westward expansion was put in action because of the belief of Manifest Destiny, the belief that it is America fate to expand from the Atlantic to Pacific ocean. The economical, political and humanitarians impacts were necessary to achieve the goal of manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion. Westward Expansion had the biggest