The Transcontinental Railroad

Transcription

1 Color Coded Notes Words in Red: Copy down exactly (word for word) from the slide. Words in Blue: Summarize in your own words. Words in Black: No need to write them down, just listen carefully to Mr. Sanders

2 The Transcontinental Railroad By the end of the Civil War railroads were already all over the East part of the U.S No railroads west of the Missouri River

3 The Transcontinental Railroad Transcontinental Railroad 1,775 miles from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California Took 20,000 workers 6 years to build

4 The Transcontinental Railroad It would have to be cut through mountains higher than any railroad-builder had ever faced, span raging rivers, traverse deserts where there was no water to be found, and cross treeless prairies where anxious and defiant Indians would resist their passage.

5 Assignments In 1862, Congress gave two companies permission to build Union Pacific to start in Omaha Nebraska Central Pacific to start in Sacramento California

6 Those Who Built It Very dangerous work many died The real heroes of the railroad, however, were the 20,000 men who labored to build it with their bare hands. Conditions were harsh for workers; freezing winters, searing summer heat, Indian attacks, and most dangerous of all, the lawless and violent end-of-the-track towns called "hell-on-wheels.

7 Workers were mainly poor immigrants from China and Ireland Irish Immigrants hired to work for the Union Pacific and Chinese immigrants hired to work for the Central Pacific Treated poorly by the bosses and not respected Worked 16+ hour days, 7 days a week Worked in the worst conditions Very low pay Lived in Train Cars or small camps

8 The Race Is On!! The Union Pacific and Central Pacific were soon locked in a race to see who could lay the most track -- and therefore get the most land and money. Somewhere in the West -- no one knew exactly where -- the two lines were supposed to meet.

9 Major Obstacles Indian attacks Weather, including major blizzards Huge mountains (Rockies, Sierra Nevadas) massive tunnels Raging Rivers------massive bridges Brutal working conditions

10 The Final Spike Finally, on May 10, 1869, The UPR and CPR met at Promontory Summit, Utah. The presidents of both railroads, Mr. Durant and Mr. Stanford, swung at the last gold spike. "May God continue the unity of our Country as the Railroad unites the two great Oceans of the world."

11 Promontory Point

12 How The Railroads Changed Time Before the railroads, each town kept its own time, based on the position of the sun. Railroad companies, however, needed more exact time tables. They created a system with four time zones eastern, central, mountain, and pacific time. Every place within the same time zone observed the same time.

13 Pullman Cars George Pullman approached Durant in 1867 with the idea of sleeper cars. Pullman cars of the 1860s and '70s eased travel and offered some luxury, notwithstanding the perils of early train travel. The lavish passenger trains touched off an industrial and architectural design movement by using streamlined chrome, plastic, synthetic fiber and coordinated color schemes. Pullman passengers and staff (who were mostly black) enjoyed a world of fine wood, excellent upholstery, and food you could only find at the finest restaurants back home.

14 The Pullman Sleeper and Dining Cars Railroad lines also added sleeper and dining cars where porters, conductors and waiters attended to the needs of passengers.

15 Technology of the Railroads In 1869, George Westinghouse helped make railway travel safer and faster with the invention of a new air brake. On early trains, each railroad car had its own brakes and brake operator. If different cars stopped at different times, accidents resulted. The new air brake allowed an engineer to stop all the cars at once.

16 How the Railroads Changed America The railroads spurred economic growth. Steelworkers turned millions of tons of iron into steel for track. Lumberjacks supplied wood for railroad ties. Miners dug coal to fuel the engines. The railroads opened every corner of the country to settlement and growth. Central Pacific locomotive No. 1

17 How the Railroads changed Utah Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Growth of new towns, more people, more businesses Many new people coming into Utah from diverse backgrounds ---New Cultures Increase in Irish and Chinese populations Made it easier for Utah business to obtain goods and supplies

18 Write a letter home Pretend you are an Irish or Chinese immigrant who is working on building the Railroad. Write a letter home to your family explaining to them what you are doing and how a normal day is for you. Your family back in Ireland or China is not familiar with the geography of the United States, so you also need to explain exactly where the railroad will go and what the land and climate are like along the way. Sketch a simple picture of the railroad you are working on and the surrounding landscape to show your family what it looks like. Your letter should be about 3-5 paragraphs long with you sketch on the back.

19 The Irish Workers Many were Civil War veterans. Average pay... a dollar a day. Worked as pick and shovel men, teamsters, blacksmiths, mechanics, carpenters, masons, and track-layers. Crews lived in railroad cars Crews worked up to16 hour days, seven days a week, including most weekends, laying more than a mile of track per day.

20 The Chinese workers Besides hiring Irish immigrants who worked for low pay, the Central Pacific Railroad began employing over 10,000 Chinese immigrants.