Industrialization: The Railroad : Zachery Johnston

Industrialization: The Railroad, Major Event

The Railroads were one of the biggest successes of the Industrialization period. From San Francisco Bay, California to Omaha, Nebraska a new railway would span the plains. All of this set in motion by the Pacific Railway Act, signed by Abraham Lincoln. The race began to who could gather the most land. Union Pacific in Iowa; Central Pacific in California, 10,000 Irish and Civil War Veterans race against 10,000 Chinese, to who can lay more rails than the other.

Grenville Dodge, a former general in the Union Army, he now leads the Union Pacific railway company. He started in Omaha, Nebraska and pushed westward. Leland Stanford bought stock in Central Pacific Railroad Company along with three other people, Charley Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington. Stanford went on to become Governor of California, served as a Senator. These two men lead there companies to build across a great expanse of the western plains. The Central Pacific Railroad laid 688 miles of railway and the Union Pacific laid 1,086 miles of railways.