The Transcontinental Railroad And Westward Expansion

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Term Paper Title	The Transcontinental Railroad And Westward Expansion
# of Words	2573
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	10.29

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)

  The first American railroads started in the 1830's from the Atlantic ports of
Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah
(Douglas 23). Within twenty years, four rail lines had crossed the Alleghenies
to reach their goal on `Western Waters' of the Great Lakes or the tributaries of
the Mississippi. Meanwhile, other lines had started West of the Appalachian
mountains, and by the mid-1850's Chicago, St. Louis, and Memphis were connected
to the East. Still other lines were stretching Westward, beyond the Mississippi.
An international route connected New England and Montreal and another one
crossed Southern Ontario between Niagara, New York, and the Detroit River.

  During the 1850's, North and South routes were developed both East and West of
the Alleghenies. It was not until after the Civil War, however, that a permanent
railroad bridge was constructed across the Ohio River. After the Civil War, the
pace of railroad building increased. The Pacific railroads, the Union Pacific
building from Omaha, Nebraska, and the Central Pacific building from Sacramento,
California, had started to build a transcontinental railroad during the war to
help promote national unity. They were joined at Promontory, Utah, on May 10,
1869, completing the first rail connection across the continent.

  Before the transcontinental railroad, the Eastern railroads had lines running
only as far West as Omaha, Nebraska. The Western railroads had a few lines
running North and South in California, far West of the wall of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. In between these two networks was a huge gap of about seventeen
hundred miles of plains and mountain ranges. Closing this gap w...

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