Transcontinental Railroad

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US railway constructed 1861–69 by the Union Pacific Railroad building westwards from Omaha, Kansas, on the eastern edge of the Great Plains, and the Central Pacific Railroad building eastwards from Sacramento, California, on the Pacific West Coast; the lines met at Promontory Point, just north of the Great Salt Lake, Utah. The largest civil engineering project in western history to that date, the railroad was over 4,800 km/3,000 mi long and crossed deserts, canyons, and mountains, requiring the development of new construction techniques. Upon its completion the journey time from East to West was cut from six months to one week and the process of uniting the USA into one nation took a giant leap forward.

Impact
The Transcontinental Railroad effectively shrank the USA by linking its previously separate halves. Trade opportunities between East and West were quickly exploited to the benefit of the US economy, and government judges and officials were sent out to the new territories. Homesteaders were able to move easily to the Great Plains to take up lands offered under the Homestead Act (1862), accelerating America's fulfilment of its belief in its manifest destiny to populate the land of North America. The philosophy that Americans had a right to do so as God's chosen people was reinforced by their overcoming of the seemingly impossible difficulties posed by the railroad's construction.

For the Plains Indians, however, the railroad was disastrous. Their life-giving herds of North American buffalo, or bison, were decimated on both the northern and southern Plains by hunters who used the railroad to ship the hides and bones to the East. As the homesteaders flooded in, the Plains Indians were forced to give up more land. The success of the Americans led to the final destruction of the Plains Indians' way of life.

Red represents progress. Blue is Mongolia's national colour. Effective date: 12 February 1992. >>