Question

Technological advances lead this remarkable period of growth, but what are these confounding new things? As curious citizens of the day, you set about to learn of these wondrous new advances that you read about in the newspaper that are spanning the distances from “sea-to-shining sea.”

ABOUT RAILROAD

Answer 1

Sea to shining sea is the phrase used by Katharine Lee Bates in 1893 when she had visited  Pikes Peak, Colorado, and was stunned by beautiful America.

I early 1850 there was in the eastern half of the United States, mostly short, isolated freight lines, and virtually there was no passenger line were available to make the journey faster and safer, and there were no rail lines west of Missouri, physician and businessman Hartwell Carver was the first person who proposed the idea of railway line to Congress in 1832, but his idea was dismissed.

In1862 the Congress passed the  Pacific Railway Act, and the funds were collected by various means through private investors, bond and government help. the railroad mapped was already in progress by Sacramento Valley Railroad’s chief engineer, Theodore Judah, together with a miner Daniel Strong, through the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The purpose of this transcontinental railroad was to connect the United States from east to west. The  Central Pacific started in work in 1863 of laying track from Sacramento and working eastward, and the other company,  Union Pacific Railroad was to built  westward from the Missouri River, near the Iowa-Nebraska border, the plan was that the two lines would meet the middle,

There was a great competition between the two companies, the Central Pacific was dominated by four big businessman Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, and Mark Hopkins, there were many financial problems and making use of a loophole in the legal action they exploited and get the maximum funds from the government. The construction was disrupted because of the civil right movement. The workers of Union Pacific were brutally attacked by the  Native American and various tribes that their land is getting snatched by the white people, the movement of  Union Pacific was much faster than  Central Pacific, as the Central Pacific started facing shortage of workers they hired Chinese workers an these workers laid down ten miles of track in a single day that is record in history still unbroken,

By 1867 the Union Pacific had reached Wyoming covering 4 times as much much faster than Central Pacific, the Central Pacific had  20 % of the 690 miles railroad through the most difficult terrain of mountains. Both the companies then started their work towards lake city, both companies compromise on various regions like bride and tracks were not laid up to the standard and had to change later on

In 1869 March the president  Ulysses S. Grant he announced that he would withhold the funds unless the two companies speed up their work and finish it and meet at the meeting point they selected Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake; the length was 690 miles from Sacramento and 1084 miles from Omaha,

On May 10, 1867, at last, the railroad was completed and many workers and dignitaries watched as the final spike was driven linking the Central Pacific and Union Pacific.and the transcontinental railroad was completed.

The struggle of yesteryear is giving fruit to this generation with rail journey becoming more advanced and a short and convenient route of traveling within the country it had helped in business development also