Night scene on the New York Central Railroad., American Express company's special express train
Popular Graphic Arts
Beginning in the early 1870s, railroad construction in the United States increased dramatically. Prior to 1871, approximately 45,000 miles of track had been laid. Between 1871 and 1900, another 170,000 miles were added to the nation's growing railroad system. Much of the growth can be attributed to the building of the transcontinental railroads. In 1862, Congress
passed the Pacific Railway Act, which authorized the construction of a transcontinental railroad. The first such railroad was completed on May 10, 1869. By 1900, four additional transcontinental railroads connected the eastern states with the Pacific Coast.
Four of the five transcontinental railroads were built with assistance from the federal government through land grants. Receiving millions of acres of public lands from Congress, the railroads were assured land on which to lay the
tracks and land to sell, the proceeds of which helped companies finance the construction of their railroads. Not all railroads were built with government assistance, however. Smaller railroads had to purchase land on which to lay their tracks from private owners, some of whom objected to the railroads and refused to grant rights of way.
Laying track and living in and among the railroad construction camps was often very difficult. Railroad construction crews were not only subjected to
extreme weather conditions, they had to lay tracks across and through many natural geographical features, including rivers, canyons, mountains, and desert. Like other large economic opportunity situations in the expanding nation, the railroad construction camps attracted all types of characters, almost all of whom were looking for ways to turn a quick profit, legally or illegally. Life in the camps was often very crude and rough.
By 1900, much of the nation's railroad system was in place.
The railroad opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of town and communities, and generally tied the country together. When the railroads were shut down during the great railroad strike of 1894, the true importance of the railroads was fully realized.
To find other documents in Loc.gov relating to this topic, use the term railroad with such
other terms as land grants, construction and construction camps, transcontinental, and Railroad Strike of 1894.
Documents
Railroad Building in Texas
Working on the Central Missouri Pacific Railroad
Land for sale on 10 years credit by the Burlington & Missouri River R. R. Co.
Building the Transcontinental Railroad
Spanning the Nation
Crossing
the Susquehanna, Philadelphia Division
Eads Bridge, St. Louis, Missouri
Poughkeepsie (New York) Bridge
Crossing the Connoquenessing, near Ellwood City
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Content Standards
NCSS.D2.His.1.3-5. Create and use a chronological sequence of related events to compare developments that happened at the same time.
NCSS.D2.His.2.3-5. Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today.
NCSS.D2.His.3.3-5. Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and
continuities.
NCSS.D2.His.4.3-5. Explain why individuals and groups during the same historical period differed in their perspectives.
NCSS.D2. His.5.3-5. Explain connections among historical contexts and people’s perspectives at the time.
Preparation
Review each lesson plan and select the materials that you think will be useful. Download and
duplicate as necessary any archival materials you will use, particularly those for Activity 3. For dramatic effect in Activity 3, create some large colorful arrows. Provide a way for students to post the documents used in Activity 3.
This unit offers many resources for classroom use to enable teachers to choose those that are best suited to each class and to organize students efficiently. In Activity 3, for example, sufficient documents are listed to enable distribution to small groups
or individuals as desired.
Obtain background information about the Transcontinental Railroad from the following EDSITEment resources:
Congress and the American West: The Transcontinental Railroad — A paragraph summary and four images of important documents.
History of the Union Pacific Railroad — Four
brief essays on the financing and construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Includes links to photos, maps and other railroad-related sites.
History of Railroads and Maps — A detailed look at surveying and mapping railroads during the period of Western expansion. See especially the section on the Transcontinental Railroad.
Lesson Plan on the Transcontinental Railroad — For grades 6-12, with activities that could be adapted for younger students. Available on New Perspectives on the West. The handout for Group 3 lists some good resources on the role of Chinese immigrants; the handout for Group 4 lists good resources on the effect of the arrival of the railroad on Native
Americans.
National Archives Educator Resources, available through EDSITEment, offers a series of worksheets for analyzing primary source documents, including written documents and photographs, that you may wish to use or adapt to help students in reviewing the materials presented in this unit.
Lesson
Activities
Activity 1. There's a Train a-Comin'
To heighten student anticipation for learning about the railroads, share railroad-related poems and songs, or read a book aloud to the class. Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Page offers many terrific suggestions on its Trains Page, including "Death of the Iron Horse," by Paul Goble, which
tells of the arrival of the rails from the point of view of the Native Americans.
Activity 2. When Is That Train a-Comin'? Where Is It Going?
Share with the class an image of an 1881 Through Train Schedule.
Give
students the chance to review the schedule and make observations. Which cities were connected by the railroad? What information can be ascertained from the schedule? Which cities are served?
Give the students a map of the U.S. on which they can indicate the cities being served and the connections between them. A printable map of the 50 states is
available through the EDSITEment resource National Geographic Xpeditions.
To emphasize the entry of new states into the Union after the growth of the railroads, students could use instead—or additionally, for comparison purposes—a map of the United States in 1880, available through a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
New Perspectives on The West. If desired, compare the 1880 map to a map from 1900 to demonstrate how many states were admitted to the Union in the interim.
If desired, have students compare contemporary train routes with those of 1880:
Transcontinental Railroad Lines, 1880s: This map shows clearly the many connections from Chicago and other points in the East to points in the West, little more than 10 years after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Maps of current Amtrak passenger routes from Chicago to the West Coast, each available through a link from the EDSITEment
resource American Memory:
California Zephyr: Chicago, Ill., to Emeryville, Calif. (San Francisco, Calif.).
Empire Builder: Chicago, Ill., to Seattle, Wash., or Portland, Ore.
Southwest Chief: Chicago,
Ill., to Kansas City, Mo., to Los Angeles, Calif.
Activity 3. Because of the Train a-Comin'?
The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad led to an era of change for the U.S. Read and discuss with the class the following background on railroads and the West from the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory:
The first two paragraphs of the essay
Railroads in the Late 19th Century
The first three paragraphs of the essay The American West 1865–1900.
Prepare copies of an appropriate number of the following documents, all accessible through EDSITEment resources. Distribute them among individual students or student groups as desired. (Note: The documents are listed here in approximate chronological order. Chronological order should be maintained as the documents are displayed
to further highlight cause-and-effect relationships between different events.) As you assign the documents to groups or individuals, make sure that any that require reading (most are photographs) are distributed appropriately. Choose only those documents best suited to your class that demonstrate the various effects of the railroad's arrival. Captions provided (for example "Railway Post Office") should be shared with the students. The notes are for the teacher to aid in selecting documents and
guiding discussion.
Essay: Biography of Leland Stanford—1824–1893—Stanford's life extended throughout the railroad era. Some entrepreneurs became phenomenally wealthy as a result of the railroads. The wealth that was created helped spur investment in new technologies. Available on the EDSITEment resource New Perspectives on the West.
Photograph:
Pony Express Rider Circa 1861—Trains would soon replace horses as the fastest way to move mail over great distances. Available on New Perspectives on the West.
Document: Homestead Act, May 20, 1862 (first sentence only)—Population growth
in the West enabled the construction of the railroad. Necessary support services were provided in towns that grew up along the tracks. Once the trains actually arrived, they could bring more settlers, carry goods to market, and calm fears about the frontier as an inhospitable wilderness. Available on New Perspectives on the West.
Document: Pacific Railway Act, July 1, 1862 Sections 2 and
3—The Homestead Act and Railway Act, passed the same year, show how the U.S. government promoted and supported the construction of railroads. Available on New Perspectives on the West.
Picture Essay for Young Readers: The First Known Train Robbery in the U.S., October 6, 1866—Available on
America's Library, a link from American Memory.
Photograph: Group of mounted Pawnee warriors, October 1866
Photograph:
Silver Mine 1868—Mining became much more profitable once railroads could deliver the minerals to market. Available on New Perspectives on the West.
Document: Fort Laramie Treaty, 1868 Articles VII, XI—The
desire to promote railroad construction accelerated efforts to control the Native population and eventually led to the demise of the Native lifestyle. Available on New Perspectives on the West
Photograph: Stage coaches leaving Ogden for Salt Lake City Circa 1869—The railroad was a more efficient means of transportation than
the stagecoach.
Photograph: Laying the Golden Spike May 10, 1869 / Full Page Photo—Available on the EDSITEment-reviewed The Digital Classroom.
Timeline of selected events in business technology,
media, marketing and advertising in the 1870s—Available through a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website Documents of Civil War Women. The railroad was creating a national market for goods that could now be shipped great distances economically.
Photograph: Groceries, Produce, Provisions, etc. Large 2-story brick building
(Lucas Groceries) Circa 1870—Towns were required to supply the needs of those associated with the railroad and those the railroad attracted to the West.
Photograph: Lumber camp, Cottonwood Canyon, Utah—Natural resources could be tapped more easily once the railroads had arrived. Natural resources were often used
inefficiently.
Document Cover: Railroad Bond Prospectus: Central Pacific Railroad 1870—The wealth acquired through the railroad boom and the business ventures the railroads enhanced triggered a sharp increase in investments in the stocks and bonds of corporations. As businesses prospered, people eager to share in the profits invested heavily. Their investments provided
capital that companies needed to expand.
Photograph: Dodge City 1872–1885—"Established in 1872, Dodge City began as a center of the buffalo trade, but after 1876, Texas cattle and cowboys were the town's economic mainstay. Dodge kept them coming up the Western Trail with a free-for-all attitude that soon made it one of the most violent towns in the West. Local farmers
finally closed the area to cattle drives in 1885, and the 'Queen of the Cowtowns' passed into legend." From New Perspectives on the West.
Photograph: "Trail of the Hide Hunters"—The railroad accelerated the demise of the West's great buffalo herds, and therefore the demise of the Native Americans who depended on the buffalo. Available on New Perspectives on the West.
Photograph:
Rath and Wright's buffalo hide yard, showing 40,000 buffalo hides baled for shipment. Dodge City, Kansas, 1878—Railroads enabled the delivery of mass quantities of buffalo hides. Available on New Perspectives on the West.
Document: Chinese Exclusion Act, May 6, 1882 (Section
1)—A decline in railroad building, the fear of competition for jobs, and prejudice based on race led to the exclusion of Chinese immigrants. Most Chinese immigrants were by this time refused entry to the United States. Available on New Perspectives on the West.
Cover: 1905 Catalog of Women and Children's Clothing for Immediate Delivery—The railroads
meant that goods from almost anywhere could be delivered to your hometown. Mass production meant that goods could be produced in quantity; fewer goods were being made in the home. Available through a link from the EDSITEment resource Documents of Civil War Women.
It is the student's or group's responsibility to describe the image or document. After it is described, each document
should be displayed.
When all the images have been revealed, challenge your students to create cause-and-effect connections based on the documents. Explain that railroads brought many changes and that significant change in one aspect of our society often has a "ripple" effect that changes other aspects. Give each group the opportunity to use photos and documents to create cause-and-effect ladders. The connections the students make are hypotheses based on the evidence at hand.
An
Example of a Cause and Effect Ladder:
The student(s) would say, "Because the railroads came ..." and then display Laying the Golden Spike, May 10, 1869.
Then the student(s) would post an arrow pointing to the next image—Rath and Wright's buffalo hide yard, showing 40,000 buffalo hides baled
for shipment. Dodge City, Kansas, 1878 and say, "Buffalo hides could be shipped to the East."
The student(s) would say, "Because buffalo hides could be shipped to the East, hunters shot many buffalo," and then post an arrow and display Trail of the Hide Hunters, which shows buffalo lying dead in the snow in 1872, one with the hunter's rifle propped against its carcass.
Students
can show cause and effect using as few as two photos or documents, or as many as they can justify through their explanations. Proceed from one group to the next, as each makes a different cause-and-effect connection.
Activity 4. Because of the Train a-Comin'!
After the students have created their cause-and-effect ladders, they will work with the Timeline of Events in the West, on the EDSITEment resource
New Perspectives on the West, for the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s to look for events that validate student cause-and-effect hypotheses suggested in Activity 3.
Divide the class into six
groups, each assigned events as shown on the timelines provided. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view timelines.) Make sure each group has at least one strong reader. Give the students time to look over the list. Proceed chronologically as each group names one or more events that relate to the
building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Students should explain the connection based on the discussion in Activity 3. Further research on any of these events would make a good extension of the lesson.
Lesson Extensions
Students can read and complete the Interactive Activity for Alexander Curtis on the EDSITEment-reviewed website
At Home in the Heartland Online.
Have students conduct research on time zones. The operation of the Transcontinental Railroad required that a standardized national time system be established to insure that it was running on time. For an example of the problem that needed solving, look at the bottom of an 1881 Time
Table. For more background information, visit the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory, or The World's Time Zones.
Chinese workers contributed a great deal of labor to the construction of the railroad. Their arrival led to the rise of many Chinese-American communities. Students
can find more information and documents about Chinese Americans on some of the EDSITEment resources listed below, as well as these links from EDSITEment-reviewed websites:
Chinese-American Contribution to Transcontinental Railroad
Gum Shan -- The Golden Mountain
Guided Tour of Yema-Po
Students can contrast the days of the early railroads with today's railroad operations. If students have had a chance to ride a train, they can start the comparison with their own experience. Many firsthand accounts of early travel on the Transcontinental
Railroad are available via a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library.
At the time of the Founders, nothing in the U.S. — no message, no commerce, no person — could travel faster than a horse. Students can compare different historical modes of travel. Many links to information on overland travel prior to the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, as well as firsthand accounts of Early Travel on
the Transcontinental Railroad. Further information may be obtained through these links from EDSITEment resources:
History of Horse Transportation, Overland Mail Company 1858 and
Traveling by Stagecoach
1858: The first nonstop stage coach from St. Louis arrives in Los Angeles, completing the 2,600 mile trip across the Southwest in 20 days
The Building of the Panama Canal
From "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad" to "Midnight Train to Georgia," trains have entered the vocabulary of song. Through EDSITEment resources, you can locate song sheets and, sometimes, audio recordings of train songs. Consider working with the music teacher to find ways to use train songs in your curriculum. Some examples from the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory:
"The Age of Progress" (c. 1860)
"Railroader," audio and lyrics: search for "Railroader 5131 A1" on American Memory
"I Will Go West" (1875)
Students can
track the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in California and Nebraska
Students can take a field trip to see model recreations of early railroads.
Recommended Resources
American Memory
History of Railroads and Maps
Library of Congress
The National Institute of Standards and Technology
ArchNet
Guided Tour of Yema-Po
At Home in the Heartland Online
The Center for the Liberal Arts
The Smithsonian
National Archives Education
Congress and the American West: The Transcontinental Railroad
The Internet Public Library
The American West
Frontier Transportation
The Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
International Museum of the
Horse
The Union Pacific Railroad: Facts, Figures, and History
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo: The Overland Mail Company
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Page
Encyclopedia Britannica
National Geographic Xpeditions
New Perspectives on the West
Episode 5: Grandest Enterprise Under God
Other Railroad Related Photographs
Timeline of Events in the West
University of Texas Online
Western History: The Photography Collection
Additional
Resources
Recommended reading from American Memory
Blumberg, Rhonda.Full Steam Ahead: The Race to Build a Transcontinental Railroad. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 1996.
Coiley, John. Train. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Hynson, Colin.The History of Railways. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's, 1998.
Silverman, Jerry. Singing Our Way
West: Songs and Stories from America's Westward Expansion. Brookfield, Conn.: Millbrook Press, 1998.
Recommended reading from Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Page
Goble, Paul. Death of the Iron Horse. Aladdin Paperbacks, March 1993. (Reading level: Ages 4-8; 29 pages, reprint edition; ISBN: 0689716869)
Recommended reading from
Women of the West Museum
Levitin, Sonia. Nine for California. Illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith. New York: Orchard Books, 1996. (Reading level: Grades K-3)
Bunting, Eve. Train to Somewhere. Illustrated by Ronald Himler. New York: Clarion Books, 1996. (Reading level: Grades 3-5)
What impact does the transcontinental railroad make on the United States?
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. The reduced travel time and cost created new business and settlement opportunities and enabled quicker and cheaper shipping of goods.
Which of the following statements best describes how the transcontinental railroad impacted American?
Which of the following statements best describes how the transcontinental railroad impacted American Indians? It prevented them from engaging in their traditional way of life.
How did the transcontinental railroad impact the United States quizlet?
this system divided the US into four time zones. The transcontinental railroad also brought settlers to the frontier. they brought lumber, wood, people, and other necessities. the railroads also brought settlers and miners who laid claim to Native American land.
Which statement best describes how the transcontinental railroad affect the United States during the late 1800s?
TEKS 15A: Which statement describes how the Transcontinental Railroad affected the United States during the late 1800s? The railroad contributed to the rapid settlement and growth of towns in the West.
