Hal Stands up for Himself V. Hal Determines to Act VI. Felix Hardwick is astonished IX. The Plot Against Hal X. Hal is accused XI. For and Against XII. Hal Expressed his Opinion XV. A Narrow Escape XX. The market has been going up since the first of December. Mason was an old friend of the family, and I presume he thought he could leave them in no better hands.
It was carried on between two men, both well dressed. He, called Allen, was a tall, sharp nosed individual, probably fifty years of age. Craftsman of the Law, p. American Law and the Constitutional Order: Harvard University Press, Our class is doing a History Day project. What gave the Big Four and Washington D. Why did they think it was important? Why did they decided to build a railroad? Why was the Transcontinental Railroad built? The Big Four were merchants in Sacramento and knew about 19th century travel — how slow, difficult, and dangerous it was to cross the continent on the overland trails , hardships of life along the trail , to cross Nevada and reach California.
They wanted to connect the east and west coasts and to make it easier to trade with the east coast and open up transcontinental trade with Asia. The discovery of gold in million ounces of gold came from California in the 19th century also started the gold rush and lead to the building of the transcontinental railroad, which also used hydraulic gold mining construction methods. Like the present day Silicon Valley visionaries , they were the great entrepreneurs of their day and used both business savvy and engineering genius — It was the greatest engineering project of the 19th century, permitting transcontinental travel in 6 days instead of 6 months and allowed the United States to expand across the entire continent and to become a world power.
They wanted to get very rich while building a railroad, and succeeded at both while helping to build a great nation and an enormously successful California economy. Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it That government is best which governs least. All eyes are opened or opening to the rights of man. The Pacific Railroad Acts formed the Union Pacific Railroad, authorized the route to be constructed by the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, and provided funding for the transcontinental railroad in the form of government bonds which had to be repaid with interest and land grants half the land for the railroads and half for the government in a checkerboard pattern so both would benefit financially when the initially almost worthless land would become valuable [in places where water was available] after the railroad was constructed.
Great Locomotive Chase
Land Grant Checkerboard Maps Click to enlarge. How much did it cost; in dollars and land grants , to build the first transcontinental railroad? Total price of the railroad? It was not in the railroads' interests to retain all the financial information relating to profitability although many records are available , and the market value of railroad bonds and lands varied greatly, so accurate answers are not possible:.
Who destroyed them and what was the exact reason may never be known. Daniel Yost, Stanford's private secretary, said that the last time he saw the books Mark Hopkins was packing them for the company's move from Sacramento to San Francisco. Charles Crocker said that Hopkins had probably destroyed the books, thinking them not worth keeping. Hopkins, of course, was now dead and could not deny or explain the actions attributed to him. The Pacific Railway Commissioners were convinced that the construction of the road cost far less than the amount paid to the companies working on it.
After investigating the Central Pacific's finances, they concluded: Without the enjoyment of this right, all other rights would lose half their value. Supreme court similarly respected such privacy protections: It is abhorrent to the instincts It may suit the purposes of despotic power, but it cannot abide the pure atmosphere of political liberty and personal freedom. See the discussion of "dollars per mile of track" including the question of exactly where do the Sierra Nevada mountains begin and end.
See comments regarding the role of the government in financing the transcontinental railroad. How much iron and lumber was used in the construction of the transcontinental railroad? To this you would need to add the weight of about 5, spikes and 1, bolts per mile, tons of iron used in the construction of the Sierra snow sheds, plates, switches and sidings, iron hardware used in constructing wooden trestle bridges, ton locomotives, cars, etc.
Other sources speak of " fifty-ton locomotives " and " two or three tons of spikes and fish plates " per mile. Not sure if the weights of locomotives listed are shipping weight or maximum track loading including water. If you estimate from the available data that about 21, miles of track were put in place during the 's in the U. The total completed length of the sheds and galleries was about thirty-seven miles, the building of which consumed 65,, feet board measure of lumber and tons of bolts, spikes, and other iron.
Graves comments that amazingly, "each and every pound of rail was accounted for, as shown by a letter from Collis P. Huntington says, in part that he contracted to buy ' I can't speak to the Union Pacific rail but can add to the information on the Central Pacific's miles of "Iron. All rail ordered for the Central Pacific Railroad was by the metric ton, pounds per ton. After the th mile the rail was reduced to a 56lb. The rail requirements were usually calculated by the men who ordered it and by the men who installed it as requiring an average of tons per mile, that was the way it was measured as it was impractical to measure by the foot.
One hundred tons per mile included the main line and all the side track, incidental uses and waste. Using that method of measurement the Central Pacific railroads miles of track would have been approximately 69, metric tons tons of rail. Not a scientific way to calculate but as close as you will ever get for just the rail. I can imagine that the Union Pacific's requirement was about the same so — for the total mileage of the transcontinental railroad of miles required , tons metric tons of rail for the track alone. So there you have it. Just remember that in the 's that rail was measured by the metric ton but bolts, spikes and rail fastenings were measured by the standard 2, lb.
Then you would have to add the weight of spikes bolts, rail chairs, fish plates rail fastenings. I would think that [the above] estimate of approximately , tons of iron, just for the track, is as close as you will ever get without access to the original records scattered in archives across the country, and then it is doubtful they are even close to being complete.
The CP's engines ranged in weight from 56, to 77, at the heaviest and they would average out at about , lbs. The UPRR's engines were a little heavier, ranging from 54, to 93, lbs for an approximate average of about 75, lbs. Total engine weight would be about 10, tons or so. But then there were the engines acquired by both companies from other railroads, and on infinitem. The greatest amount of lumber used for one project was the 37 miles of Snow Sheds, as mentioned above.
Some other major uses for lumber: There were many, many wooden trestles , most of them were huge and they required an enormous amount of lumber. Then there were the ties. This should be an easy one to develop a reasonable estimate as there was an average of about 2, wood ties per mile over the entire 1, miles of the transcontinental railroad. The average size of the tie was 6"x8" x 8 feet long. Imagine 2, wooden ties x 1, miles. That's a lot of lumber. I'll leave that one for you to figure out the Board Feet required. It was in the tens of millions.
Entire forests were cut back for miles from the line, some taking a hundred years or more to recover. Huntington , Charles Crocker , Mark Hopkins , and Leland Stanford became fabulously wealthy only as a result of their success in building the first transcontinental railroad which dramatically improved the speed, cost, and comfort of cross-country transportation — years of incredibly hard work while staking their entire personal fortunes in their daring attempt to build the Central Pacific Railroad across the Sierra Nevada mountains — a project that people at the time did not even believe was possible.
Supreme Court held in that " Great undertakings like this, whose future is at the time uncertain, requiring as they do large amounts of money to carry them on, seem to make it necessary that extraordinary inducements should be held out to capitalists to enter upon them, since a failure is almost sure to involve those who make the venture in financial ruin.
Huntington attributed his own and his fellow Associates' success to their obtaining 'a national reputation not only as railroad builders but as honest men that watch over and protect the interest of all [the company's] stock holders however small their interest. Jones wrote of Governor Stanford that " we employees all loved him. Fulton looking back at 57 years of service, concluded: Surely all must appreciate all of this and the fair treatment given. However , later, "Leland Stanford Stiles in Robber Barons or Captains of Industry?
They consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity, though they mean only They are [thus] led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life [as] But after a certain point, it just brings more money. For example, much of the wealth of the "Big Four" just consisted of a few nicely engraved pieces of paper representing their ownership of the CPRR or its construction company , but you can be certain that it was primarily other travellers who got themselves or their freight speedily across the country to wherever they wanted to go, and not four men who owned the railroad who filled most of the seats on the trains.
But remember that "when asked what he considered mankind's greatest invention, Albert Einstein's reply was: For example, Stanford's only son died at age 15 of typhoid fever, so in at age 61 he used his railroad wealth to create a great University , named for his son , which less than a century later gave rise to Silicon Valley and the technology revolution that makes it possible for you to read what is before you.
History of the Union Pacific Railroad - Wikipedia
The Big Four did build spectacular Nob Hill San Francisco mansions none of which survived the earthquake and fire, but Judge Edwin Bryant Crocker , the seldom remembered brother and fifth of the big four used his wealth collecting art and his mansion in Sacramento and art collection became the Crocker Art Museum. His widow Mary [moved] in and shortly after [took] up with Edward T. In , the mansion was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and the ensuing fire.
Jane Lathrop Stanford had a painting made of a collection of her jewelry in , before auctioning the collection to support the Stanford University Library. The Crockers donated 2. Huntington fortune built the inter-urban rail lines in Los Angeles his widow, Arabella Duval Huntington, married Henry Edwards Huntington, his nephew and the fortune survives today as the Huntington Library in San Marino.
Similarly, the new home for the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa is located in one of the many library buildings built by steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie's fortune. There already existed the California Central, running as far a Lincoln on the way to Marysville. Some urged that they project their own line northward from Arcade Creek, driving down the value of the California Central bonds, which they could then pick up wholesale.
Huntington, however, argued that "it was better to be [fair] than sharp," and so they paid the market value for the California Central. That is for the railroad itself—they already owned a mortgage on the railroad's rollingstock. Likewise, when faced with the prospect of the California Pacific providing a more direct route from Sacramento to the Bay, some urged that the CP build their Stockton line direct from Junction Roseville thus preventing any connection with the CalP and the desertion of any business. Rather, because Sacramento supported the CP in its early days, it was decided that the transcontinental railroad would continue to run through Sacramento—even though doing so meant that trains had to run from the American river bridge Elvas to Front Street, south on Front to R, east on R to Brighton Junction.
Though the track from the American River bridge to Brighton past modern Sac State was completed in , it was not used for through trains until the opening of the Roseville yard circa One thing Hopkins and Huntington learned in the wholesale hardware business—it is okay to control the market, but if you screw your retailers out of business, you destroy your own market. I am afraid that in the eyes of late 19th century journalists, the directors of the CP must have been crooks merely since they succeeded.
I think they were probably more responsible than many in business today. The spiders are old faces with new forms, and dangerous as ever. They lose no time, though their victim seems not to know that delays are dangerous. It is proposed that the federal government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans. While we're on the subject of the fabulously wealthy , you are blowing it big time if you ignore this critical information or think that how to become rich is difficult or some well kept secret: On a personal note, Woody Allen observed that " money is better than poverty , if only for financial reasons," so if you would at least like to achieve financial independence for yourself, you can decide to pay yourself first to easily become an " Automatic Millionaire " — just systematically save at least hours a day worth of your income over your entire working life starting today, especially while you're still young.
Even better, max out all your retirement plan and IRA contributions — and prefer fixed income investments in tax deferred accounts, and stock in taxable accounts — to help do this by minimizing taxes ; and occasionally rebalance to your desired asset allocation. Do the math — there are no guarantees in life, and diversification is crucial as the ultimate outcome with individual investment categories becomes increasingly uncertain over the very long term , but the magic of compounding makes this approach , when followed relentlessly over the very long term , as close as you're ever likely to come to a sure thing!
Need a painless way of getting started? In a land where four small town grocery and hardware store shopkeepers can build a transcontinental railroad , anyone can be a success. The road to wealth is, as Dr. Franklin truly says, 'as plain as the road to the mill. It can't buy you money" — Henny Youngman. Believe me, rich is better" — Mae West. Go to work is the only cure" — Abraham Lincoln. Spend til the End , by Kotlikoff and Burns].
To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. The federal government must and shall quit this business of relief. Oops, Social Security is already in the red ahead of schedule in even before the baby boomers' retirements]. You might become really angry at the huge missed opportunity, when you realize that if the current The success of these approaches has been amply demonstrated, for example, by how much better the Galveston County employees did even without taking any stock market risk by being allowed to opt out of Social Security in , and by the Thrift Savings Plan available to Federal employees.
Don't let yourself be conned into staying poor and don't think kindly of people with their hand in your pocket trying to dupe you into believing that owning your retirement savings — that you can spend as you please or leave to your kids — is somehow a bad thing for you, that Social Security hasn't already spent every dime ever collected, that Congress hasn't already embezzled every cent of the supposed "Social Security Trust Fund," or that you becoming rich using exactly the same investments that they sell and use to fund their own retirements is some " risky scheme. How did they decide where to lay the tracks for the railroad?
Dexter, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, In early , Asa Whitney , a New York businessman and China trader, proposed to Congress that the government grant a sixty-mile-wide strip between Lake Superior and the Oregon country to any company willing to risk construction. Various possible routes across the country were proposed by men such as John Plumbe , Asa Whitney and Edwin Johnson and explored by the Army Topographical Engineers in the Pacific Railroad Surveys of the early 's. Five Transcontinental Railroad 's were once a dream.
The completion of the Great Northern Railway [on] January 6, , made completion of five sprawling transcontinental [railroads] basically following the original surveys commissioned in by the government " The Central and Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe, and Northern Pacific Railroads, among others, built along essentially all of the proposed routes.
Strong but other routes across the Sierras were considered and surveyed. Congress at the start of the Civil War. There is nothing in the Word of God about them. If God had designed that His intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful speed of 15 miles an hour, by steam, He would clearly have foretold it through His holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell. The construction dates are very well documented because the issuance of government bonds to the railroads to finance construction was based on miles completed. Where can I find information about the Transcontinental Telegraph?
The first transcontinental telegraph , established as a result of the Pacific Telegraph Act of , put the Pony Express out of business the day it was completed, Oct. Theodore Judah, in Washington, D. Where can I find statistics on population growth in the west due to the Transcontinental Railroad? Also see the population statistics for San Francisco, including the Chinese population living there.
Do you have any data on "miles of track" laid in the 's in the US and into the 's? Railroads - to What is the current status of the Central Pacific Railroad? However, the original roadbed, track, and locomotives at Promontory, Utah where the rails were joined no longer exists but have been recreated. The line across the Sierra Nevada Mountains was later expanded to two tracks, with Cape Horn and a new long tunnel on the eastbound track, and Bloomer Cut and the original Summit Tunnel on the westbound track, and part of the route across Nevada was relocated.
Graves comments that this new tunnel, "the Big Hole , bypasses the snow sheds that used to run along above Donner Lake. It is a tunnel that runs from west of the Summit to about Eder, roughly MP Tunnel 13 is at MP The Big Hole is officially called Tunnel 41 , running nearly two miles in length, holed thru at 8: Official length is 10, ft. It lowered the summit elevation by First train thru Sept 19th, consisting of 55 cars of green fruit. On the West side of Tunnel 6 you will see the footprint of the original turntable, there is also a footprint of a turntable at Cisco.
Sadly, the original summit tunnel after more than a century of use was recently taken out of service reportedly as a result of a property tax dispute. The views are spectacular The telegraph line along the railroad lead to the microwave coast to coast long distance telephone company, Sprint Communications , while Southern Pacific Telecommunications Company, an SPRR fiber optic subsidiary, in acquired Qwest Communications and took its name, and the Southern Pacific Railroad magazine is now Sunset Magazine. A recent government report prepared by the National Park Service reviews the history of the CPRR construction, including improvements made in between and Is it true that most of the original Sierra Grade is still in use today?
I see that a second track was built with additional tunnels, but I still see track in Bloomer Cut and around Cape Horn. Most of the line "over the hill" between Sacramento and the Nevada border does indeed still run along the original Sierra grade for which original Chief Engineer Theodore Judah until his death in , Samuel Montague, and my great great grandfather, Lewis Metzler Clement , were largely responsible for locating. While the original Sierra tunnels were bored using hand drilling and black powder, with the advances in tunnel boring mechanical drills and TNT , and the decision to double track the line, over the first quarter of the Twentieth Century a second set of tunnels were bored for the second track the only double track tunnel on the line is 18 at Newcastle , a few sections of the track were realigned, and a second grade was created where not enough room could practically be made to add a second track on the original grade such as at Bloomer Cut.
The last of the tunnels bored was the two mile long tunnel 41 "The Big Hole" under Mt. You can see this tunnel marked on the map at the top of the Donner Pass gallery page. When this double tracking was completed, the new track 2 became the default Eastbound track, and track 1 was used mostly for Westbound traffic. Track 1 occupies the original grade for the most part, but at a few places such as Cape Horn the original grade is occupied by Track 2. In the early 's Southern Pacific management decided to remove some of the double tracking to "save money" and one of those places was where the line split just one mile west of Donner Pass at shed 41 at Norden.
Old Track 1 through tunnels and the snowsheds was removed and a new Track 1 was realigned to run next to Track 2 to Tunnel Here it merges into a single track alternately serving both eastbound and westbound traffic. A particularly good one is called "Across Donner Summit" by Pentrex video. This video is especially interesting because it was made before the original Donner Pass Track 1 grade Summit Tunnel was abandoned. Central Pacific Railroad Abandonments.
Track One the original grade was largely abandoned during the realignment, the new grade runs from 10 feet to 75 miles off the original grade. The grade thru Rocklin is near the original grade, however Track 2 the new, second line installed in leaves Track 1 just East of Rocklin The world owes you nothing.
It was here first. With some chagrin I've read that the famous Summit Tunnel over the Sierra Nevada's was removed from use in , and the tracks removed. The response to this question received from the Union Pacific is quoted as follows: One track through the original tunnel was removed a few years ago.
Trains use another nearby and longer tunnel to bypass the trackage that was removed. Since only black and white photographs were taken in the 's and 's, the photo collection is not much help in determining the colors of the rail cars, except to exclude colors that would not have the correct brightness. But, in , Hermann Vogel " discovered that the collodion plate, normally non-sensitive to colors other than blue, could be made more sensitive to green by treating it with certain aniline The Car Builders Dictionary , has an advertisement for Parrot - brand varnish, with no colors specified.
That book has an incredible amount of information, not particularly well indexed, but didn't find specific information regarding colors. The California State Railroad Museum has two CPRR engines and their website displays a photograph that includes cars — perhaps they have done research about the authentic colors. The terminology "Pacific Railroad" was consistently used at least until the 's to refer to the first transcontinental railroad Central and Union Pacific.
Lithographs, if in color, were generally hand colored in the 's and 's. A notable exceptions is the Nelson Guide books, which include original chromolithographs on which the color of the CPRR cars is not clearly indicated. Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper included spectacular wood engravings which were not originally colored, but which may have been subsequently beautifully hand colored , perhaps recently, so the colors cannot be trusted as historically accurate.
For station colors, see the Historic Paint Colors webpage. Wendell Huffman has provided the following additional information regarding the color of CP passenger cars: In telling various carbuilders how to paint CP passenger equipment in , C. Huntington referred to the color chip being sent as "orange. This painting was reproduced on p.
I don't know the date of this painting, but presume it to be the work of the Civil War illustrator of the same name who lived These suggest that the Becker painting is relatively accurate. In the painting, the passenger cars are yellow. Also, the private car "Stanford" was painted yellow when built in It may be that the early cars were orange and that the color was changed to yellow in s. Or, perhaps the yellow was a dark "orange" yellow. Or, perhaps, Huntington didn't know much about colors.
Or, perhaps oranges were lighter in color then. Apparently in connection with this, the CP began to repaint their equipment to the Pullman color. Cars were reported being repainted in the Sacramento newspapers into At the same time, CP cabooses were painted from yellow to "bright metallic red. There is some reason to believe Pullman color then was not the same as Pullman color later—perhaps a change from yellow ocher and umber mix to black and yellow mix.
In fact, there were probably as many mixes of Pullman color as there were railroad paint shops. Pullman color was described in Sacramento newspapers at time of change as "dark plum", "olive" and "dark olive. This distinction in hue between the letter background and the Pullman color is apparent in many black and white photos and underscores the difference between Pullman color and black.
This black background was dropped in , apparently in connection with the introduction of the wide vestibules and new lettering style associated with World's Fair train. Wendell Huffman also writes that The topic seems to come up nearly every time someone starts a new model. The problem is, even when you find out that the Central Pacific's Jupiter was crimson and blue, you are left wondering what was what, and what shade of blue, and did the reporter who told us this priceless piece of information do so because this locomotive was different from all the others or merely because it happened to catch his eye one morning when he was trying to fill his page.
Huntington's letters to car builders instructing them to paint the passenger cars "orange" leave us scratching our heads when everything else tells us they were yellow. Was he color blind? If you think answering questions about the "first transcontinental railroad" was difficult, stay away from the color question.
Paint your equipment black and white, just like they appear in the photographs! Brown was first used on delivery vehicles and uniforms in , chosen because it matched Pullman rail cars and hid dirt. If you catch a UPS truck in bright sun, you can see the olive highlights form the color. Wyatt comments that the Southern Pacific started spray painting equipment in the mid 's. Jim Wilke found that the March 20, issue of the Sacramento Daily Bee newspaper stated that "The new engine Jupiter, fresh from the paint shop, gleaming in blue and crimson with gold appeared on the track this morning.
I designed the color schemes currently on the [ Promontory, Utah, Golden Spike National Historic Site ] replicas this was in and since that time I've been able to contunue the research and refine the information based on documentation which has since come to light. I've been able to revise the 's tender based on Rogers records which surfaced some years after the replicas were painted. Here are the most accurate and current versions of the color schemes:.
Jupiter Dark Prussian blue: Engine and tender frames, lead and tender trucks, cylinder saddle, cowcatcher, pilot beam, cab, dome base and sandbox, headlight, headlight bracket, iron work on bell stand, springs, etc. Wheels, panels on sides and back of tender, headlight panels on side, raised moldings on cab Gold leaf: Striping, lettering and ornamentation. Cab windows, interior Dark Grey: Cab roof Russia iron a silver-grey, best represented in model form by using Testor's "Gunmetal Metallizer": Engine and tender frames, lead and tender trucks, cylinder saddle, cowcatcher, pilot beam, dome base and sandbox, headlight, headlight bracket, iron work on bell stand, springs, etc.
Vermilion an orangish red: Wheels, oval number panel on tender side Dark green: Long panel on tender side, number plate Varnished walnut: Cab exterior and interior, and sashes Dark Grey: Also see the colorized photo of Rogers-built Buffalo No. The Sacramento Bee says the company has decided to repaint the cars and make them the rich dark color of Pullman sleeping cars of the present day, which is something darker than olive.
Also see Southern Pacific Depot Colors. The Transcontinental Excursion of Railroad Agents , describes: Six of these magnificent coaches, with smoking and baggage cars, were provided for us. In addition, the superintendent's car, laden with refreshments and fruits, the gift of the generous San Franciscans, brought up the rear. A more beautiful train never stood at a depot to receive a more grateful party. The May, p. Westward from Council Bluffs and Omaha Crofutt's Overland Guide for p.
By this arrangement passengers are not required to 'change cars' at every junction point, saving at times an immense amount of trouble and annoyance, particularly to ladies and invalids traveling alone, and in fact to all classes of travelers. If a Union Pacific train came from Omaha what happened when it reached Promontory Point — did they change train crews or locomotives for the Central Pacific? Does the California Zephyr pass through Promontory Point where the last spike was driven [sic]? But Promontory Point is not where the rails were joined although this misidentification of Promontory Summit as Promontory Point dates from the time of the joining of the rails.
There were various plans as to where to put the first transcontinental railroad line in relation to the Great Salt Lake. Originally the plan was to go south of Utah's Great Salt Lake, which was also strongly favored by the Mormons who wanted the transcontinental railroad to go through Salt Lake City , but the route through Ogden, around the north end of the Great Salt Lake was shorter and that was what was built in , and where Promontory Summit is located. A government commission's recommendations resulted in agreement and in a law that settled the matter.
Lewis Metzler Clement was a railroad commissioner. Promontory Point not where the rails were joined is at the southern end of a peninsula that juts into the Great Salt Lake from its northern shore. In the location of the rail line was changed to cut across the middle of the Great Salt Lake on a long causeway the Lucin cutoff. What was the name of the first train or engine that went across the continental United States? Several trains were present at the ceremony on May 10, Regarding the first load of cargo and passengers: A Great and Shining Road.
Moguls and Iron Men. The oral history of the McDonald family records that the passengers on the first transcontinental train from the east were able to attend the joining of the rails ceremony on May 10th. Coincidentally, the cornerstone was laid for the Ogden House that same day, so a substantial celebration was held, with Mayor Bloomer leading the lengthy parade from the Ogden House to the depot where the C. Silver Horse was joined by 4 other engines. Despite a drenching rain, the entire community joined the band, the engine whistles, and numerous cannons in a rather noisy celebration.
How many Transcontinental railroads were there in ? There were many routes across North America in involving the following railroads in the West in order from North to South:. You can see all the western routes on a UPRR railroad map dated from the Library of Congress although only the Union Pacific lines are shown in bold.
Essentially all the routes contemplated by the 's in the Pacific Railroad Surveys were completed by Also, there were an even greater number of routes from the east coast to the Missouri river. For example, for the western part of the trip you could use the Union Pacific System across Nebraska or across Kansas, and could continue to the pacific northwest via the Oregon Short Line, or could go to California via the Central Pacific.
They were not lounging in the caboose or engine cab. That took nerve, coordinatiom, timing, and a perfect sense of balance to go over the top of a freight train — Winter or summer, rain, snow, sleet, ice all over the roofs, and on brake wheels and handholds.
Where can I find out more about Chinese railroad workers? What information is available about African American transcontinental railroad construction and other workers? According to "Moguls and Iron Men" by James McCague, included in the Union Pacific's mostly Irish construction workers was a " three-hundred-man force of Negro freedmen of whom little is known except that they were said to have made good workers" [p. Perhaps surprising in California, but there seems to have been a fair sized African-American community in the state back then.
I've also come across mentions of the African-American community in Sacramento during that period, larger than one might expect. Or you could write your check to the U. Department of Health and Human Services. Which would you choose — and why? I am doing a report for school on the building of the bridges and tunnels for the transcontinental R. I would like to know how many there are and how they were built? Four of these are on the Union Pacific and fifteen on the Central. The tunnels of the Central Pacific are nearly all near the summit The tunnels were blasted out of solid rock with black powder that came in 25 lb.
Nitroglycerine was introduced in for use on the summit tunnel No. The average daily progress was 1. Many of the photographs in the Exhibits on this website show the construction of the bridges see links below. Also see drawings of the various types of bridges , the RailroadExtra page on bridges , Construction of the Central Pacific Railroad and the discussion of tunnels and bridges in the Commissioners Report. A bridge was built over the Sacramento River in Hope that this helps with your report. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
Where can I buy copies of photographic prints of the Golden Spike Ceremony May 10, at Promontory, Utah where the rails were joined? A poster showing the famous A. The Oakland Museum website similarly states that they make available reproductions of images from their collection, including the large format A.
Books , railroad video's , and other railroad posters can be purchased via our on-line CPRR Museum bookshop. For requests for digital images as shown here, on the CPRR Museum website, see rights and permissions. Bridger, WY, May 19, Who was Lewis Metzler Clement? After a day trip by wagon train from St. Judah, to be one of his two chief assistant engineers joining Samuel S. Although he was in Washington, D. Some such as S. Clement studied engineering at McGill University in Montreal ; UPRR chief engineer Grenville Dodge attended Norwich University in Vermont then traveled west to work on the Illinois Central Railroad and came to Iowa in as a surveyor on the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad; others were either self taught or "apprenticed" with other engineers and learned through on the job training such as S.
Montague who began his career at age 22 with the Rock Island and Rockford Railroad as a surveyor's assistant. While the people in the stereographs are not individually identified, see the key to all the portraits included in the famous Thomas Hill painting of "The Last Spike. When were the original iron rails upgraded to heavier weight steel?
The original rail weight was 56 lbs. That rolled iron rail was manufactured in The rail is sometimes incorrectly described as cast iron, but is actually rolled from a cast ingot which is then forged before rolling. The 56 pound per yard iron rail was kept in use through about l, when C. Huntington purchased steel rail manufactured by Terrenoire from Paris, France.
The Boston-based ship " Herald of the Morning " that brought the first iron rail from Massachusetts also brought the first Terre Noire steel rail from France. As the engines and trains got heavier, it was necessary to get larger rail to handle the larger trains. What did the Central Pacific Railroad's corporate logo look like? We don't think that there was a single CPRR corporate logo — railroad corporate logo's were not widely or consistently used prior to the 's. Indeed, from scanning through OG's, seems to have about the same level very few as does But starting in , there seems to be a gradual buildup in the concentration of logos until they become very commonplace by As of , [the Pennsylvania Railroad] did not yet show one.
But the Erie had its familiar diamond as early as A variety of fancy typestyles were used on CPRR bank checks. The CPRR timetable does have a nice map logo. Kenitzer observes that a linen CPRR survey map has an embossed copper CPRR company seal right with a raised train logo in the center surrounded by writing around the edge: The picture in the middle is Note that starting recently, the Union Pacific aggressively protects its logos and trademarks.
According to Kyle K. Railroads used heralds for most of their advertising. However, Madison Avenue types Probably what happened is that heralds were etched into zinc printing plates and glued to small blocks of wood. These could then be handled by a compositor as a single item in page makeup. Thus it is a rather large logotype. Frederic Eugene Ives in invented the swelled gelatin process which makes a mask on a zinc plate which then can be etched in acid. This made it possible to transfer an image from a photographic negative to a printing plate. By interposing a screen between the negative and plate a halftone full range of tones between black and white can be obtained.
In the process was sold commercially. Prior to this, images had to be engraved by hand, typically cut into linoleum blocks or steel plates. This was the necessary technology that made the widescale use of heralds in printing. De Fazio comments that "The logo issue has two branches, as I've read it: I'll speak of the first first. If late-night movies are to believed, personal marks go back at least as far as the Roman empire.
But personal marks are not trade marks. Watermarks on paper go quite a way back too, certainly before , and watermarks are surely trade marks. Makers' marks on precious metal items go a long way back too, and they are surely trade marks too. Wyler, Okie or Hughes date the London assay office to I've not tried to learn whether the London assay office was the first anywhere. That's not to say that makers' marks necessarily also go back to , but it would probably be close, if not coincident in date. An assay office assays pieces for content and marks them 'hall mark' if satisfactory.
Pieces previously had been marked with a unique maker's mark, a die-incised mark. Along these lines, many in the jewelry, precious metal and related trades marked pieces with makers' marks even if content was not controlled by an assay hall. The Hartford Insurance Co. Read, Providence axle washers ; Yale Lock Co.
Mather's Sons, Mfrs, NY printing inks. This list is not exhaustive. Ward's On the Mark: The History and Symbolism of Railroad Emblems. Ward's paper is extensive, and supported by an extensive bibliography. Ward notes that RR's started adopting emblems in the 's. Ward's Table 1 lists emblems trade marks, logos that predate Examples from Ward include: It is the responsibility of every human being to aspire to do something worthwhile, to make the world a better place than the one we found. Where can I research an ancestor who worked for the railroad?
See our Great-Grandfathers' page with links to genealogy resources.
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You might need the assistance of a professional genealogy researcher. Huntington genealogy My engine now is cold and still, No water does my boiler fill. My coke affords its flame no more, My days of usefulness are o'er. My wheels deny their wonted speed, No more my guiding hand they heed; My whistle - it has lost its tone, Its shrill and thrilling sound is gone; My valves are now thrown open wide, My flanges all refuse to glide; My clacks - alas! In death I'm stopped, and rest at last.
This verse had been used, with only minor differences, on three graves in England, about ten years earlier. Everytime a person dies, a library burns to the ground. Where can I find out about a train wreck? They have existed since the dawn of steam locomotion on railroads and were extant during the two previous centuries when livestock pulled the rolling stock along the track.
For another example, during the period of on the 3. By , the four engines replaced the last of the previous horse power. The pioneering steam trains killed at least six members of the public, including persons saving time by attempting to beat the train to a point of crossing the track. Benjamin Pierce, age 11, the only child of President-elect Pierce, died in a train accident while the Pierce family was en route to Washington, D. Once a date, even an approximate date within months, say is available, tracing information on significant wrecks ca. The railroad professional journals of that day typically listed wrecks and other significant occurrences, giving not only the dates but also the most basic available details.
From there, one can seek out and read the local press. A certain level of skepticism may be appropriate when reading local press descriptions. See Early railroad accidents. The first California Aquarium Car, Reports of railroad accidents between and are cataloged. Shaw, Vail-Ballou Press, , pp. Appendix X lists significant railroad accidents from to Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, Obamacare According to Chris Baer of the Hagley Museum and Library, starting around the mid's the Railroad Gazette available on microfilm printed a monthly synopsis of all railroad accidents which they apparently culled from newspapers or by polling the railroad companies.
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The computer will do all the work. The man will feed the dog. And the dog's job? To bite the man — if he touches the computer. Why are the two rails 4 feet, 8. The railroads already existing in California with which the CPRR might likely connect were laid with a 5' 0" track gauge. Expecting to be an extension of existing railroads, the gauge was critical.
The Pacific Railroad Law itself canceled those plans by requiring initially that the CPRR build its first 40 miles on their own account, so it was imperative that the initial construction be as inexpensive as possible. Imagine the expense to the CP if they had actually tried to build 40 miles directly east from Auburn on their own—as compared to building 40 miles out of Sacramento. They couldn't have done it. The CP management likely didn't realized immediately that this requirement really forced them to build directly out of Sacramento; it probably took a while to sink in. The gauge question was settled separately from the Pacific Railroad Law—settled by Lincoln rather than Congress.
Even when they realized that they were going to have to build out of Sacramento, they would likely still have wanted to share track gauge. They likely didn't expect to acquire the other railroads, but they would probably have expected to interchange rolling stock—at least with the California Central, which they crossed at Junction Roseville. As it was, when they did connect with the California Central in August , they were unable to interchange. There was talk of laying a third rail on the CP to enable Cal Central equipment to run into Sacramento that way.
They would have to have laid two extra rails. The CP foreclosed on a mortgage on the Cal Central's rolling stock—which they had acquired from Sam Brannan , and forced the Cal Central to change its own rail—in February The locomotive Stanford was actually ordered at 5' 0" gauge, and had to be regauged before being shipped. It was chartered in and built in Authors have stated that it was originally to be built at 5' 2" gauge, but this is unverified. The charter doesn't mention gauge. The RR was actually built at 5' 0" in It was most likely built to that gauge to take advantage of the one locomotive already in California—the Elephant.
This engine was brought out in see Jack White's American Locomotives, an engineering history— revised edition.
In other words, the fact that the SVRR and the Cal Central were 5' 0" gauge may have been an accidental consequence of the Elephant already being in California. Charlie Crocker had made sure of that by issuing lifetime passes to Shoshoni, Cheyenne and other local chieftains permitting them to ride the passenger cars, and had also decreed that tribesmen of lesser rank might ride the freight cars free for 30 years. They had their own ideas on how to deal with the Native Americans.
When the railroad came out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains into the Nevada flat land they started running into Paiute tribes. Central Pacific Dignitaries would meet with the Chiefs and offer them treaties. They were offered free passage on the trains, and jobs. They were also told if they gave the railroad problems that the railroad had a great army of men and would defeat them.
The Central Pacific at that time started using Paiutes to work on the railroad. As they moved into Shoshone territory they began to use Shoshone workers. The Central Pacific used both their men and women. It was written by an observer of that day that those Native American women were stronger than the men in back breaking work. The Paiute and Shoshone would work along side the Chinese workers. In , the Central Pacific Railroad reached "French Ford" founded in the late s by a Frenchman named Joe Ginacca who settled on the banks of the Humboldt River and traded with pioneers heading west on the Emigrant Trail to California and Oregon and who also operated a ferry service that transported wagons across the Humboldt which was renamed Winnemucca in honor of a famous Paiute chief.
Dodge wrote that "In In making the surveys, numbers of our men, some of them the ablest and most promising, were killed; and during the construction our stock was run off by the hundred, I might say, by the thousand.
History of the Union Pacific Railroad
The government may take its choice. Did you know that Sohcahtoa helped build the railroad? How many buffalo were there before the transcontinental railroad was begun and how many were left after the completion of the railroad? I have recently come across an old chamber pot, or hand held toilet, that was at one time used by the Central Pacific Railroad.
It's a large brass flanged pot with a large handle, and a brass plaque affixed to the front which reads "Notice to Passengers — Do not empty this toilet out of train window — Central Pacific RR. We wondered about these for quite some time and finally concluded that these are late 20th century novelty items , not genuine antiques, that were produced in two sizes and variously labeled as a Toilet, Chamberpot , or Spittoon.
Times for various cities are shown in an table. Nineteenth-Century Timekeeping in America. I have this Railroad Pocket Watch The CPRR Museum doesn't have information about true " railroad watches " because they were a much later development:. What happened to the " Jupiter " and No. Sic transit gloria mundi:. After the ceremony the two locomotives returned to their regular duties and worked for many years before being retired. In April it was vacated from the equipment rolls and scrapped. Its four mates had either been scrapped or sold to second-hand locomotive dealers. In President E. Harriman was busy consolidating all his railroads into one system and obviously gave no thought to No.
The Central Pacific's "Jupiter" soon became plain No.
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It was renumbered No. The late Seth Arkills of Globe, first the fireman and then the engineer of No. Arkills had developed an affection for No. Beal, asking that the engine be preserved at Globe alongside the station. The letter accomplished nothing, for the Southern Pacific had control of the road by then and the locomotive was worth over a thousand dollars as scrap. Sentiment played no part in their thinking.