Golden Spike Cultural Landscape Report

Federal Support and Initial Construction of the Transcontinental Railroad: 1840-1867

The first call for a Pacific Railroad was initiated as early as 1832 by an Ann Arbor newspaper, The Emigrant (Utley 1960). By the 1840s a New York merchant, Asa Whitney, had presented Congress with a plan for the development of a transcontinental railroad route, the Pacific Railroad. In 1850 the Committee on Roads and Canals of the House of Representatives noted that building a railroad to the Pacific Coast would "cement the commercial, social, and political relations of the East and West" (White 1895). According to historian Robert Utley (1960:2), "the commercial motive remained dominant from first to last, but there were other considerations that carried more influence with Congress." These other considerations included the final subjugation of the American Indians, a reduction in the expense to the United States for transporting mail and supplies across the continent, and the strengthening of political — as well as physical — bonds between East and West. The transcontinental railroad's ability to strengthen national political bonds would become increasingly important as sectional tensions between the North and the South escalated into the Civil War.

In 1853 Congress appropriated money for the Army's Topographical Corps "to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean" (Davis 1894). Five routes were surveyed during the years 1853 to 1855 — the Northern, Mormon, Buffalo, Thirty-fifth Parallel and Southern routes. Advocates of the Southern Route contended that it would be easier and less expensive to build because of its more temperate climate, less rugged terrain, and shorter distance (from Fulton, Arkansas to San Diego, California). But in Congress the debate over slavery blocked any selection since Northerners and Southerners could not agree, given the implications for states entering the union either free or slave. Not only did sectional differences vex them, but the question of locating the eastern terminus of the railroad also stymied progress towards reaching a decision about the best route (Bain 1999:43-48; Goetzmann 1966:265; Griswold 1962:8).

While the North and South argued over the route of the proposed transcontinental railway, a few enterprising Californians took action. On June 28, 1861 the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California was incorporated under the laws of California, and Theodore Judah was designated as the company's chief engineer (Bain 1999:99; Griswold 1962:14; Kraus 1969b:32-33). During the winter of 1861-1862, Judah, along with a group of Eastern supporters who were hoping to build the line west from the Missouri River, actively lobbied Congress seeking approval of a route for the Pacific Railway. By then, the South had seceded from the union and the Civil War had heightened the military and political importance of building a transcontinental railroad. "With no prospect of a southern route being adopted and with no southerners to oppose a northern route, senators and representatives had little difficulty agreeing on the terms of an acceptable bill. During May and June 1862 such a bill successfully made its way through both houses of Congress, and on July 1 received the President's signature" (Utley 1960:11). The title of the legislation was "An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph Line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the Use of the same for Postal, Military and Other Purposes" (Klein 1987b:13; see also 12 Stat., 489). The Railway Act of 1862 (also referred to as the Railroad Act) not only authorized the United States government's active support of the Pacific Railway, but it also chartered the Union Pacific Railroad Company — the first corporation chartered by the federal government "since the ill-starred Second Bank of the United States" (Klein 1987b:13).

The Railway Act of 1862, subsequently amended in 1864 and 1866, authorized and entitled the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California to "construct a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific Coast at or near San Francisco or the navigable waters of the Sacramento River, to the eastern boundary of California" (Section 9, Railway Act of 1862). The Union Pacific Railroad Company, established in the early fall of 1862, was authorized by Congress to construct the eastern portion of the National Pacific Railroad Line from "a point on the one hundredth 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 River, in the Territory of Nebraska, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory" (Section 1, Railway Act of 1862). Although Council Bluffs, Iowa, located on the eastern bank of the Missouri River, was once considered a likely eastern terminus, Union Pacific official Thomas Durant insisted on Omaha instead, deciding against beginning construction on the rail line by first having to build an expensive bridge across the turbulent Missouri (Griswold 1962:50-51, 58-59).

The general consensus in Washington in 1862 was that the Central Pacific would only be able to build its line across the Sierra Nevada to the eastern border of California by the time the Union Pacific had completed its line as far west as the western border of Nevada. Section 1 of the 1862 act identified the terminus of the railroad to be at a point on the border between Nevada and California. The legislation, however, also allowed each of the two companies to continue building its line either westward or eastward of the California-Nevada border, depending on which company completed the line to this point first (Section 10, Railway Act of 1862). The legislation thereby effectively enabled the subsequent race to the junction point.

Government assistance to the two railroad companies took the form of land grants and financial loans. In addition to granting the companies 10 alternate sections of land for every mile of track laid, the 1862 act specified that the road would have a 400 foot right-of-way. The railroad companies were also to receive 30-year United States bonds at 6 percent interest. Recognizing that constructing the line over rougher terrain would be more expensive, Congress set the amounts of the bonds at $16,000 a mile in level country, $32,000 a mile in the foothills, and $48,000 a mile in the mountains (Sections 5 and 11, Act of 1862). Additionally, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific could issue their own bonds in an amount equivalent to the value of the bonds issued to them by the federal government.

The Act of 1864, which amended the 1862 act, was signed on July 2 of that year. This legislation increased the land grants to twenty alternate sections, thereby doubling the amount made available to the railroads by the original legislation (Section 4, Act of 1864). This act also permitted the Central Pacific to build 150 miles east of the California-Nevada boundary, "so as to meet and connect with the line of the Union Pacific road" (Section 16, Act of 1864). The 1864 act additionally authorized the government to pay a portion of bonds in advance of the actual completion of the Union Pacific's line, not to exceed "two thirds of the value of the work done," providing that "no such bonds shall issue to the Union Pacific Railroad Company for work done west of Salt Lake City under this section, more than three hundred miles in advance of the completed continuous line of said railroad from the point of beginning on the one hundredth meridian of longitude." Congress made clear that by adding this language, it hoped to facilitate "the work on said railroad," and to enable "the said company as early as practicable to commence the grading of said railroad in the region of the mountains, between the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains and the western base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (Section 8, Act of 1864; see also 13 Stat., 356).

The Act of 1866, approved on July 3 of that year, further amended the Act of 1862 by again altering language regarding the connecting point between the two lines. In doing so, the measure laid the specific groundwork for the competition between the two railroad companies that led to the construction of more than 200 miles of parallel grades east and west of the Promontory area by April of 1869. In this case the act provided:

That the Union Pacific Railroad Company, with the consent and approval of the Secretary of the Interior, are hereby authorized to locate, construct, and continue their road from Omaha, in Nebraska Territory, westward, according to the best and most practicable route, and without reference to the initial point on the one hundredth meridian of west longitude, as now provided by law, in a continuous completed line,/P until they shall meet and connect with the Central Pacific Railroad Company, of California; and the Central Pacific Railroad Company, of California, with the consent and approval of the Secretary of the Interior, are hereby authorized to locate, construct, and continue their road eastward, in a continuous completed line, until they shall meet and connect with the Union Pacific Railroad: Provided, That each of the above-named companies shall have the right, when the nature of the work to be done, by reason of deep cuts and tunnels, shall for the expeditious construction of the Pacific Railroad require it, to work for an extent of not to exceed three hundred miles in advance of their continuous completed lines [Section 2, Act of 1866; see 14 Stat., 80].

Despite the government bonds and the land grants, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies still had only a portion of the capital necessary for the development and construction of the transcontinental railway. Private investment proved essential for the design and construction of the railway. Both companies worked their contracts through construction companies that held virtually the same directors and stockholders as the two railroad companies. The Union Pacific's construction company was the Credit Mobilier of America. The Central Pacific, for its part, initially established the firm of Charles Crocker and Company but by 1867 had organized the Contract and Finance Company with Charles Crocker serving as president. Utley has described the manner in which the two railroad companies worked through the construction companies:

Greatly simplified, the process worked like this. The Union Pacific awarded construction contracts to dummy individuals, who in turn assigned them to the Credit Mobilier. The Union Pacific paid Credit Mobilier by check (i.e., cash for the benefit of Congress), with which the Credit Mobilier purchased from the Union Pacific, at par, Union Pacific stocks and bonds, which it then sold on the open market for what they would bring. The construction contracts were written to cover the Credit Mobilier's loss on the securities and to return generous profits. In this manner the directors and principal stockholders of the Union Pacific, in their opposite role as directors and stockholders of the Credit Mobilier, reaped large profits as the rails advanced. The Big Four [Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, C. P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins] used almost the same device to build the Central Pacific [Utley 1960:21].

During the summer of 1860 Theodore Judah began to survey a route for the transcontinental railway through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. By the fall of 1861 he had assembled a set of plans and profiles for the new roadway as it headed east from California. Pursuant to the federal legislation that extended the eastern limits of the Central Pacific's line, the company was prompted to send its surveyors out to run lines in the vicinity north of the Great Salt Lake and east of Ogden. By the early spring of 1868, the Central Pacific crews had extended their survey efforts as far east as Fort Bridger, Wyoming. The project engineers and their survey crews often rectified their selected route as they moved eastward. Frequently, they selected the same general route as that designated by the Union Pacific crews. Much of the eastern end of the Central Pacific route was not closely surveyed until 1867 and it was not until 1868 that the route in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake was officially determined and staked.

The Central Pacific was the first of the two companies to begin construction on the Pacific Railway as it broke ground almost a full a year ahead of the Union Pacific. Charles Crocker and Company were awarded the contract for construction of the first 18 miles of Central Pacific roadbed. The Central Pacific held its ground-breaking ceremonies in Sacramento on January 8, 1863. Work began on the construction of the road by February, 1863, and by the summer of 1864 construction crews had completed 31 miles of operating railroad. As of November, 1866, approximately 94 miles of railroad had been opened for use and grading was underway on an additional 50 miles.

The story of the Union Pacific and its survey efforts is fairly similar. In addition to the federally sponsored Pacific Railroad surveys of 1853, private railroad companies, such as the Mississippi & Missouri (M&M) Railroad, began that same year directing surveys that would eventually extend to the Rocky Mountains. The surveyors included the company's Chief Engineer, Peter Dey, and a promising young engineer, Grenville Dodge, as his field assistant. After reaching the Missouri River, Dodge was sent to continue the line west of Omaha. The survey efforts were continued west to the Platte Valley. In 1859 Dodge returned to the Platte Valley and prepared a reconnaissance of the area with the idea of developing a transcontinental route — the Pacific Railroad — through the valley and continuing westward. By the fall of 1863 additional surveys had been conducted for a possible route west. Four different routes to the north bend of the Platte had been examined, reconnaissances completed for Bridger and Cheyenne passes, and the area between Fort Bridger and Provo, Utah surveyed. While the newly established railroad company — the Union Pacific — was being chartered and working to establish its board of directors, four parties of engineers were busy re-establishing the earlier surveys for a route to California.

Despite all of these early survey efforts, the alignment for the final route was constantly being manipulated in the field. In some instances, the disagreements over the locations of the routes and who was authorized to establish them resulted in undermining the stability and overall operations of the company. As with the Central Pacific, the Union Pacific crews did not confirm the route through the Salt Lake area until late summer of 1868. These continual changes in the alignment kept the engineers and surveyors just barely ahead of the graders along a good portion of the route.

Work on the Union Pacific line began with a groundbreaking ceremony on December 2, 1863, held on the Missouri River bluffs about two miles north of Omaha. Measurable progress both in grading and line construction, however, was delayed, until mid-1865. On October 6, 1865, the locomotive General William Sherman made its first run — a 24-mile round trip to the end-of-track from Omaha, with General William T. Sherman as guest of honor accompanied by Union Pacific Vice-President Thomas Durant and a host of Omaha citizens (Best 1969a:92; McCague 1964:98).

By August of 1866 the Union Pacific crews were 200 miles west of Omaha, and in late November of that year the Casement construction-train, led by General Jack Casement and his brother Dan, wintered over at the junction of the North and South Platte rivers where the first "hell-on-wheels" town — North Platte — was founded. Quickly built at the end of the track as it progressed westward, these towns attracted the seamier side of business: saloons, gambling dens, and houses of prostitution. Although North Platte proved to be an exception, most of these towns disappeared as fast as they arose when the construction crews moved on to the next end-of-track location. George Pine, who adventured across the continent on the train soon after the Pacific Railroad was built, described the establishment of these camp towns this way:

When a place was selected for a new terminus sixty or eighty miles ahead, the gamblers, the desperadoes, the State Prison graduates, and the most profligate men and women congregate, lay out the tent city, open their rum shops, gambling houses and hell-houses. Eighteen thousand men receiving four dollars a day and board, money was abundant, and this traveling "Hell," as it was called, obtained more than their share of the profits on construction (1871:343-344).

While the Central Pacific's most difficult challenge — the crossing of the Sierra Nevada Mountains — was encountered almost immediately upon beginning work on the transcontinental road, the Union Pacific crews had relatively easy-going until they encountered attacks by hostile Sioux and Cheyenne in Nebraska. The Central Pacific faced unimaginable engineering obstacles in as short a distance as approximately 31 miles out of Sacramento where the work required building trestles, making cuts and fills, snaking grades and constructing a total of 15 tunnels through the solid granite of the Sierra — all of this during a stretch of unusually harsh winters that plagued construction efforts and that exacted the heaviest price of all — human lives.

In the fall of 1865 and into the spring of 1866, the Central Pacific workers met their first daunting obstacle — Cape Horn. The only way around this nearly perpendicular granite buttress involved cutting a ledge into the rock wall. Chinese laborers were lowered in baskets from which they dropped charges of gunpowder and then chiseled first a foot-hold, then a space large enough for a wheelbarrow, then one wide enough finally to lay a track (Chinn 1969:43-48). Over the course of the next two years, through mid-1868, the Central Pacific workers fought to win against the fierce Sierra. Loss of life was great — workers died when they were blown to bits in explosions or buried alive in snow. Still, the Chinese workers, joined by Cornish miners brought over from Virginia City, persevered. Blasting of the nearly 1700-foot Summit Tunnel alone took nearly a year. Finally, after building the necessary tunnels through 60 miles of mountains and constructing some 40 miles of snowsheds over the right of way so that trains could run with minimal delay through the snowy winters, the Central Pacific line broke through to western Nevada, arriving in Reno in June of 1868.

For most of the time that the Central Pacific labored in the Sierra, the Union Pacific had moved forward at a pace of nearly a mile a day. Then, as the Union Pacific approached the Rockies, the tide shifted, and it was the Union Pacific's turn to struggle with constructing tunnels and erecting trestles in order to deal with the rocky terrain in Wyoming and Utah. Once the Central Pacific workers had succeeded in laying track to Reno, the race to meet their rivals acquired a new urgency. Now able to more easily measure their progress, they quickly matched or exceeded the mile-a-day rate. Both companies were spurred to be the first to reach the Salt Lake valley in order to control the potentially lucrative trade there. The race, in fact, was on in earnest. As Nevada Senator William Stewart explained to his colleagues in the Senate as they considered how to direct the two lines to a meeting point:

When the Central road crossed the Sierra Nevadas, then of course, a race commenced, as was perfectly natural. It would have been very strange after the Central Company had stayed in the mountains as long as they did, and had seen the Union Pacific Company in the plain and that they were likely to have much obstruction, if they had not imitated the example to some extent of the Union Pacific Company. They did so, and entered into the race. The race has been a lively one [Stewart 1869:534].

While beneficial in some respects, the race also engendered wasted labor and materials as both companies sent surveying and grading crews past a possible point of junction. Each line hoped that theirs would be the official track for the transcontinental railway, meaning that they would thus receive the accompanying land grants and subsidies for this portion of the line. Finally, seeking to protect the public interest, the federal government had to intervene, insisting that the duplicative efforts stop and that the rails join together in one continuous line. The parallel grading that is still today visible at Promontory Summit testifies to the long-lasting effects of this race to complete the road. As little else could, the physical evidence exemplifies the archly competitive nature of the first transcontinental railroad's construction.