West railroads and American Indians

Railroads and the American Expansion into the West

The transcontinental railroad construction began on the West Coast in 1863 . The Chinese comprised a major part of the work force that built the Central Pacific railroad eastward , over the high Sierras , and across the deserts of the West - to Promontory , Utah , where on May 1869 , it linked up with the Union Pacific whose workers , of Irish , Scottish German and Italian descent , started in Omaha , Nebraska . The railroad reduced the cross-country trip , from Boston to San Francisco , from six months to one week p

When the rails from the opposite sides were almost a the point of meeting , the whole country listened in for news of Promontory . And then a cannon faced over the Pacific and one over the Atlantic went off simultaneously flashing a signal across the United States . Crowds cheered . There was a frenzy of celebration . It was an enormous event for the country . The famous Golden Spike ceremony on May 10 , 1869 at Promontory , Utah , commemorated the completion of America 's first transcontinental railroad . The event marked the uniting of the country that had only recently fought the Civil War , and therefore had most special significance . The transcontinental nation became a reality (Williams 4 During the nineteenth century in America , the railroad represented civilization moving into the wilderness . As early as 1835 the U .S Senate discussed surveying the west to build a Transcontinental railroad However , railroad technology had not yet developed strong enough motive power to cross the mountainous west . That great feat was left to the next generation of railroaders

During the 1840 's the phrase Manifest Destiny ' was coined to explain the growth of the United States . It was argued that the country had a right , a God-given destiny , to expand from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans and to govern all the land in between

However , the nation 's fulfillment of its Manifest Destiny or expansion had to wait until after the Civil War . In the meantime , the railroads increased the population of the United States east of the Mississippi and created a bustling economy with its rapid transporting of goods to and from the larger east-coast cities

Following the Civil War , the railroads made it possible for expansion into the Trans-Mississippi West to the Pacific Ocean . People in the area were assured there was a way to get their products to market , and to receive information and manufactured goods to make their work and lives easier . In the second half of the nineteenth century , the railroads merged vast territories into one nation by creating dependable economic , social and communications unity

The railroads linked California with states in the east , even as they helped the interior regions become quickly populated . Towns sprang up along the track around water and coaling stations for the locomotives Many times , the men who laid the tracks purchased property and settled down on farms . Prospectors for gold , silver , iron and oil continued to push west to dig mines , pan streams and...