The Pacific Railroad Act (July 1862)

• makes construction of the railroad possible
• aim - developing connections between the new lands of the west and the northern industrial cities

  provided the incentive for the transcontinental railroad building after the Civil War removed opposition to the east-west route from the Southern states
• construction started in 1863 and finished 10 May 1869
• two companies were responsible for the project;

  1. Union Pacific - started building in the westwards
  2. Central Pacific - started building in the eastwards
• The Pacific Railroad Act;

  • extinguishes all Indigenous Peoples of the Plains rights to land along the route
  • lent $16000 per mile of track and $48000 in mountain regions ($61 million in total) to the railroad companies
  • gave 45 million acres of land to companies to sell off to settles for large profits
• Each railroad company persuaded foreigners to come and live in their lands - 10000 people from Scandinavia settled in Nebraska, 60000 from Germany settled in Kansas
• the railroad made migration to the west much easier and quicker - helped achieve 'manifest destiny'
• promoted the development of cattle towns
• enabled industrial companies of the north to connect the developing agriculture areas of the west - settlers could use mail order catalogues to order tools - made farming easier
• 1880 - railroad companies had settled 200 million acres to the west - more influential then the Homestead Act (only managed 6 million)
• broke the Permanent Indian Frontier and gave away the Indigenous people land
• the track reduced the buffalo numbers as it interrupted their migration paths, it also reduced the amount of grassland