They were tight quarters in which conditions could be squalid. Also troubling were fears of the Native Americans across whose land the laborers built their road. There were Native American snipers, raids, livestock rustlings, scalpings, and burnings all along the railroad right of way.

As seen on the map, by 1890 there was 163,597 miles of railroads stretching across the entire United States, which in turn had its negatives such as destroying of land, habitat loss, species depletion, and more; but it also had it benefits as well.

Workers had to find their own food and tents and in some cases, slept in the underground tunnels they were working on. Without the work of these immigrants on the Transcontinental Railroad, it would cease to exist. The discrimination and marginalization of the Chinese would only get worse in the coming years.

While a shopkeeper by trade, Strong was known around the area as an expert on the terrain of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Judah needed someone who could function on land like a harbor pilot might on the water because the Sierra Nevada loomed as the greatest obstacle to building the transcontinental railroad.

The biggest obstacle in the way of building the transcontinental railroad. The amount of land given away under the Homestead Act. The lumber of trees. The number of buffalo roaming the Great Plains in the 1800’s.

For the US government and the railroad companies, the biggest obstacles in building the Transcontinental Railroad were mountains of solid granite and…

The rail line, also called the Great Transcontinental Railroad and later the “Overland Route,” was predominantly built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) and Union Pacific (with some contribution by the Western Pacific Railroad Company) over public lands provided by extensive US land grants.

There was a short travel amount of time. Mountains were very dangerous. Human costs were that There was an expectancy of death, 1,500 of the Chinese die in explosions and rock slides. Dynamite had to be used, resulting in dangerous measures.

The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 had a huge impact on the West. The railroad also gave homesteaders greater access to manufactured goods, as they could be transported easily and quickly across the railway. However, the Transcontinental Railroad had a negative impact on the Plains Indians.

From their start in England in 1830, railroads spread like kudzu across the globe. They unified countries, created great fortunes, enabled the growth of new industries, and thoroughly revolutionized life in every place they ran.

Every year, railroads save consumers billions of dollars while reducing energy consumption and pollution, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, cutting highway gridlock and reducing the high costs to taxpayers of highway construction and maintenance. Freight railroads mean more jobs and a stronger economy.

Despite cutbacks in the past, railroads are very much alive and well today — in fact, they are actually growing. Railroads also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75%, and new regulations implemented over the last few years will further cut rail emissions by up to 90%.

The steam locomotive changed transportation by allowing us to ship goods and travel faster than ever before. It gave us the ability to create new industries and mold transport into what it has become today. The steam locomotive was an icon of the industrial revolution in many countries throughout the world.