Transcontinental Railroad Timeline

Essay by mmmguevaraHigh School, 11th gradeA+, March 2004

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Railroad Timeline

1826

*John Stevens is considered the Father of American Railroads. Stevens demonstrated the feasibility of steam locomotives on a circular experimental track (Think of the little train track around the Christmas tree) constructed on his estate in Hoboken, New Jersey, three years before George Stephenson in England.

1836

*Homesteaders start to travel the Oregon Trail.

1836

*John Plumbe sends petition for a railroad to Washington

1846

*In attempt to escape religious persecution, Mormons begin to travel to Utah

1848

*Asa Whitney, chief promoter of railroads, was the first to propose railroads on a grand scale. He was voted down because of its "unrealistic construction scheme.

1849

*Gold Rush in California

The discovery of gold near Sutter's mill in CA drove in 55, 000 people by overland routes and 25,000 by sea.

*Asa Whitney publishes Project for a Railroad to the Pacific

1850

*Another proposal to Congress about railroads but did not receive support because of conflicting interests between the North and South.

The latter was totally opposed to the project.

1854

*California begins its first railroad company, the Sacramento Valley Railroad Co., with chief engineer, Theodore D. Judah

*Congress passes an act providing for the survey of possible trails

1858

*Visionary George Pullman begins building sleeping cars

1861

*Theodore D. Judah brings together the Central Pacific Railroad Co. and the " Big Four"

oPresident: Leland Stanford

oVice President : Collis P. Huntington

oTreasurer: Mark Hopkins

oGeneral Superintendent: Charles Crocker

1862

*Pacific Railroad Act

This act authorized the building of the transcontinental railroad. This provided that the two companies, Union Pacific and Central Pacific, would be in charge of building this railroad. It also provided private entrepreneurs build this railroad but the government generously endowed the project to create a incentive for private enterprise to invest.

1863

*January 8:...