Before the railroad was constructed, traveling in the USA was inconvenient. People needed to travel by foot, horse, boat or wagon. It takes a long time for people to travel even between cities. For example, traveling from the US east coast to west coast by wagon will take a couple of months. During a trip, eating, sleeping and other daily things can be problems. I can’t imagine that I can survive in a time like that!
The Americans wanted to expand to the west. The east coast was well developed and people wanted more opportunities for a better living. The west coast was unknown and huge. Many places like the Oregon Territory offered rich land, and in places like California, there was gold to make people rich. A lot of people wanted to travel to the west coast. Theodore Judah saw this need and he proposed to build a transcontinental railroad between Sacramento and Nebraska.
The construction started in 1863 and ended in 1869. About 21,000 workers—from Irish-American Civil War veterans, freed slaves and Mormon pioneers to Chinese laborers—had been recruited to perform the hard and often dangerous work of laying the 1,776 miles of track. By one estimate, the project cost roughly $60 million, about $1.2 billion in today’s money, though other sources put the amount even higher.
The transcontinental railroad reduced travel time from New York to California from as long as six months to as little as a week and the cost for the trip from $1,000 to $150. It opened up the American West to more rapid development. It also encouraged the development of towns along the railroad, as the railroad made the west less isolated.
All the railroads built in the USA form a giant net, which links all the states together. People can travel to different places to visit families or friends, go on vacations, extend business and trade goods much easier. In this way, the railway united the USA into one big country.
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