The Transcontinental Railroad: The Track that Built America

hello everybody welcome back to another episode of mega projects i as always am your host simon and in this one the transcontinental railroad which is a mega project is a little bit older than the ones we normally cover on this channel but you know we want to dive into history as well so let's just get started may the 10th 1869 near the small town of promontory it was here that a country was finally united a final spike was driven into the earth not just a physical final piece but a symbol of something so much more two vast oceans and everything that lay between them was now connected by an iron road a railway that built the united states it was of course the transcontinental railroad the united states is a vast country at three million seven hundred ninety six thousand seven hundred and forty two square miles it is the third largest country in the world even today by airplane it takes just over five and a half hours to travel from san francisco to new york for the americans watching that might not sound like very much but if you live in europe and you're used to kind of a couple of hours to hop from one side of the continent to the other it is really really big but such distances also provide problems the u.s was still a fragmented jigsaw puzzle before the completion of this famed railroad much of the east was now well populated and there were real connections between most of the major cities but as you moved west things were very different though california was blooming after the discovery of gold much of what lay between the west coast and iowa and missouri remained sparsely populated the railroad physically linked to the united states but its construction took place during the country's darkest hour when it tore itself apart through bloody civil war it is somewhat poetic to say that this line of steel and wooden sleepers was what really brought the united states back together again traveling west in the united states has always held something special an air of progress and adventure pioneers who put all of their belongings into a wagon and set out for the promised land have come to form the basis of the american dream if you'd like to know more about that by the way i've done a whole video on the oregon trail on another channel that i host called geographic so if you just search that because i'm probably going to forget to put a link in the description if i'm honest from as early as the 1770s the lure of the west had pulled those dreaming of a new life many were farmers some in search of gold others such as the mormons moved for religious reasons and to avoid persecution as you can imagine this was a slow plodding endeavor that could take many months there were also substantial dangers from disease to native american raiding parties from hunger to outright exhaustion the journey west it was fraught with difficulties it's funny that we imagine pioneers happily ambling along to a jaunty beat of whatever film we're watching but the reality was pretty different perhaps the most extreme case was that of the donner party who infamously lost their way in the sierra nevada mountains and who may or may not have been forced to survive through cannibalism but it had always been the dream to unite american coasts with iron road the railway at this point much of the east was connected by rails stretched as far west as omaha in nebraska so they only needed to build another 1912 miles that's 3077 kilometers of track which you know sounds sort of easy enough [Music] the idea of the railroad emerged in the 1830s and 1840s but came to prominence when asa whitney in 1845 and dr hartwell carter in 1846 both set forth detailed proposals for a railroad congress agreed to the idea in theory but they dragged their feet a bit who would have thought but between 1853 and 1855 railroad surveys were conducted to ascertain the feasibility of the project eventually three principal options emerged number one a northern route roughly following the missouri river and passing through oregon and montana this was seen as problematic from the start because of the heavy snowfall that the area received as well as its difficult terrain two a central route following the river plat in nebraska following the oregon trail which had been one of the most commonly used pioneer routes three a southern route that would stretch from los angeles through texas and the desert regions this was generally considered the best option for construction but there was just one little snag parts of it lay outside u.s territory in what would eventually become new mexico and arizona so the first option was the easiest to dismiss so it came down to the second two as you can imagine there was a fierce debate over which line should be built understandably many senators and congressmen fought hard for their individual states though the logistics were still in their infancy many already foresaw the boom that such a line could bring for the areas that it traveled through but if all of this decision-making wasn't difficult enough well there was some serious trouble brewing [Music] in 1860 and 1861 bills to advance the railroad failed in the senate with southern senators still opposing a more northerly route now this became substantially easier after the southern states ceded from the union and the bill passed on the 6th of may 1862 with a final route that would connect sacramento to council's bluff in iowa but by this point the american civil war was already in its second year it seems extraordinary that such a project could coincide with such mayhem but president lincoln saw it as an opportunity to bring a nation together even as thousands were dying on the battlefields [Music] with covering such a mammoth distance it only made sense that two projects would be initiated and then they would meet in the middle indeed we've seen this a lot on mega projects we saw it with the channel tunnel with the french digging from one side and the brits on the other and they meet in the middle and they waved their little flags then we also saw the uh the the cable running under the atlantic ocean and how they were trying to get that to meet in the middle that one was a little bit more tricky if you've not seen that video yet please do go check it out it's a kind of comedy of errors in many ways the central pacific railroad would begin from sacramento while the union pacific railroad would begin a council's bluff interestingly congress hadn't designated a meeting point for the two railroads instead they dangled financial incentives in front of the two companies with a per mile rate each would be paid sixteen thousand dollars per mile approximately 455 000 per mile today for the track on a level grade and 32 000 per mile about 911 000 per mile today for tracks laid in the foothills and there was also dollars 48 mile or about one point three six million dollars per mile for the most difficult mountainous tracks and there was more both companies received land rights that worked out to around 6400 acres per mile 1.6 kilometers stretching for 10 miles on either side of the track this meant that the total land grants handed over to the two companies were larger than the state of texas this was done to provide the companies with extra capital that they could raise through selling the land on in total land granted by the federal government came out to around 130 million acres while state government land grants totaled 50 million acres it's not surprising with these kinds of financial incentives that numerous powerful businessmen became involved in the project on the central pacific side these californians were dubbed the big four and comprised the president of the central pacific leland stanford vice president collins potter huntington treasurer mark hopkins and construction supervisor charles crocker needless to say they all did very well things were a little simpler on the union pacific side with dr thomas clark doc durant as the president and john adams dix as vice president construction began on the central pacific section on the 8th of january 1863. as most of the machinery needed was in the east it faced a long and arduous route to the starting point in sacramento ironically it would have been wonderful to transport this all along a railroad but of course this didn't yet exist yeah this is the whole point instead it was loaded onto ships in eastern ports before sailing to panama where everything was unloaded and transported by land across the country to the pacific coast where it was once again loaded onto ships and transported up the coast wasn't an easy process but it was much easier than traversing the angry cape horn which was also really really far away the union pacific railroad did not begin construction until july 1865. this railroad was much more affected with financial problems and ongoing issues because of the civil war however much of it was sort of their own doing or rather what was going on at the top with the project being paid per mile the union pacific inflated their own profits by building unnecessary tracks and by the end of the year they had laid just 40 miles of lime so this railway could have been taking absolutely massive winding detours with the civil war coming to an end that year and presumably with more government oversight in the offering miraculously things picked up steam for union pacific i wouldn't say it was miraculous i would just say well that's what happens when someone is watching you work as they crept through nebraska they faced another problem trees or rather a lack of them nebraska is a fairly empty place at the best of times but when you require vast amounts of timber it can be a nightmare increasingly the search areas were widened but as they moved further west their supply lines became increasingly stretched thomas durrant recalled to supply one mile of track with material and supplies required about 40 cars as on the planes everything rails ties bridging fastenings all railway supplies fuel for locomotives and trains and supplies for men and animals on the entire work had to be transported from the missouri river no doubt the tunnels provided the stiffest challenge to the construction of this vast railroad especially for the central pacific team who had the unenviable task of burrowing through the formidable sierra nevada mountains the route striking out from the west accounted for 15 of the 19 tunnels that comprised the entire route the method of digging these tunnels involved during construction in the early stages workers used simple hammers and chisels on the rocks sometimes progressing just one foot per day things got a little better with the introduction of nitroglycerin and explosive liquid to blast away parts of the rock this was often done from both sides with teams meeting in the middle hopefully without blowing themselves up now the most difficult spot was the summit tunnel near the donner pass and required workers to chisel through 533.4 meters that's 1750 feet of granite oh and all of this was done at an altitude of 2133 meters or 000 feet and the conditions were absolutely brutal especially during the winter [Music] as the bloody civil war continued to rage to the east and with many of the able-bodied men pressed into service much of the labor was done by a migrant workforce with veterans of the civil war joining after the union victory in 1865. it's thought that about 15 000 chinese workers were employed on the central pacific railroad and received about a dollar a day for their troubles which is around 26 today they were working 12-hour shifts six days a week on the union pacific side it was often the irish who were employed to lay the track dig the tunnels and build the bridges many of these had escaped famine conditions in ireland first participating in the horrors of the war before joining the freewheeling drive west but if they worked hard they certainly played hard the hell on wheels was a term coined for the traveling entertainment that followed the union pacific railroad across the country this consisted of gambling dens dancehall saloons and of course brothels just imagine all of these men far from home but with a continuous source of income it was an excellent financial opportunity for some smart businessmen these were essentially ragtag little towns of tents and simple huts that could follow the line as it progressed west but while many simply disappeared after the completion some formed the bases of towns and cities that are still alive and well today such as laramie and wyoming it's thought that seven thousand towns in the u.s first began life this way now as we mentioned conditions were frequently hellish and take your pick from 40 feet snowdrift summer's peaking around 48 celsius 120 fahrenheit avalanches native american raids disease all of this was happening on the transcontinental though no official data exists it's estimated that 1 200 people died during construction as spring approached in 1869 both railroads began to near each other president ulysses s grant finally designated a meeting point the town of promontory in utah was chosen as this historic spot by this point what began as a simple rivalry had turned into a battle of prestige a bet between the two construction supervisors charles crocker on the central pacific and thomas durant yes he seemed to do a few jobs on the railroad on union pacific was placed over who could lay the most track in a single day the central pacific workforce put up an impressive seven miles in a single day but this was eclipsed by the union pacific who managed to lay ten miles which pocketed crocker a handy ten thousand dollars not bad considering it was the poor migrant workers who were doing all of the work on may 10 1863 history was made the two companies along with dignitaries from around the country converged at promontory the union pacific line had completed 1087 miles 1 749 kilometers while the central pacific team had laid 690 miles or 1110 kilometers of track it's thought that this could have been the world's first live media event as the hammer and spikes had been wired to the telegraph line so the historic sounds could be broadcast around the country it didn't work out so well with the strikes being missed and then sent out separately by the telegraph operator but you know it was a nice idea these guys were like the original live streamers still six years after construction began the rival companies were now just meters apart leyland stanford drove the all-important last spike into the ground to finish the mammoth project a simple telegraph message was sent out to both coasts done the transcontinental was finally complete well nearly at least now if you know your geography you will know that sacramento is still around 100 miles from san francisco the desired terminus the central pacific railroad purchased the struggling western pacific railroad and recommended construction linking the two cities on the 8th of november 1869 the first passengers were able to arrive at the eastern side of san francisco bay going the other way took even longer it wasn't until 1872 that the union pacific missouri river bridge was completed finally joining council's bluff with omaha and so on to the east coast on the 4th of june 1876 the transcontinental express arrived in san francisco a mere 83 hours and 39 minutes after it had left new york city the same journey before the construction of the railroad would have taken months over land or weeks on a ship the first freight train traveling the opposite direction famously carried a shipment of highly prized japanese tea in the age of international capitalism well it was truly here many sections of the now completed line needed to be replaced within the succeeding years considering the speed that some of the tracks had been laid it wasn't surprising that parts were frankly substandard it's thought the project cost around 60 million about 1.2 billion dollars today in total which considering what that would buy today really isn't so bad in fact it was kind of a steal it also made travel more affordable to the masses before the railroad passage the west could set you back as much as a thousand dollars twenty thousand dollars today an astonishing amount for the time however with america's new rail line that came down by about 85 percent suddenly traveling west became an option for many americans [Music] only a small part of the transcontinental railroad remains in use today the california zephyr and amtrak service which connects emeryville in california and chicago still trundles along the old line until it reaches central nevada so the transcontinental railroad unquestionably built the united states it couldn't possibly have developed in the way it did without a rapid way of crossing the country the west in particular saw a population boom and combined with the suez canal which opened six months after the dream of circumnavigating the world at speed had finally become a reality by 1880 the railroad was transporting 50 million dollars of freight a year as international trade reached astonishing heights not only did it connect and foster new communities but it transformed the way americans viewed their country and how they did business forget amazon because the first mail order catalog business began in the united states in 1872 the same year it became possible to travel from coast to coast of course not everything is all cheery the construction had devastated western forests while the open line expedited the near annihilation of the buffalo and with it much of the native american population it can also be attributed to an increase in racial tensions especially in california with the completion of the railroad many white workers either of american or european descent made their way to the promised land on the west coast this put a huge strain on the blossoming labor market with tensions and xenophobia rising quickly just 10 years after the completion of the railroad which the chinese had played such an enormous role in congress passed the chinese exclusion act of 1882 barring new chinese immigrants from entering the country sadly the transcontinental it just didn't stand the test of time it was eventually replaced by a young upstart the automobile the federal-aid highway act of 1956 authorized 41 000 miles of highways to be constructed and proved to be a damaging blow for the u.s railroads one that it really never recovered from despite its demise the transcontinental railroad will always be remembered as one of the most significant transportation projects the world has ever seen it's perhaps easier to look at what came next for the united states after the railroad like a life-giving artery the transcontinental fed a giant that would eventually become the richest and most powerful country in the world and it was all done by good old-fashioned american hard work and thousands of immigrants so that was the transcontinental railroad this has been mega projects i do hope you liked it as i always say if you've got a suggestion for a future mega project please do leave it in the comments below look down there see if you see something that someone's mentioning be like would like to hear about that give it a thumbs up because generally you know there's lots of comments i tend to look at the ones that rise to the top and get the most thumbs up so if you see something you like down there hit that thumbs up button and i will potentially get to making it also if you like this video please do also give it a thumbs up if you didn't like it or you can give it a thumbs down but you know you watch to the end so unless you hate watch this whole thing what are you doing here smash that thumbs up subscribe thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Megaprojects

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Length: 20min 17sec (1217 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2020