The topic is the building of the transcontinental railroad.
I'm certain that many would believe this belongs in History...but my interest was in the relationship between private industry and government, in the financing of the transcontinental.
I had the opportunity to visit the Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento, California, last week...and heard an amazing lecture on the above. I'll give the book I picked up at the end.
1. Early on, most railroads were built by the private sector, government support took the form of various mechanisms, such as allowing companies to run lotteries, granting of monopolies, tax exemptions, and land grants.
a. This was a feeling-out period of a difficult relationship between government and the railroads.
2. The need and feasibility of a transcontinental railroad had been discussed as early as 1820, but not until the 1850's was it seriously considered.
3. On the one hand, it was delayed by the Civil War....but it was the absence of Southern politicians that allowed the necessary legislation to be passed by Congress.
a. The South was opposed because it meant more free-states to be formed.
4. It was the largest railroad project in the world, until the Trans-Siberian 30 years later. The transcontinental had the backing of Abraham Lincoln, and required huge subsidies in the form of both cash, and land grants to the two companies doing the building: the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific.
5. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, signed by Lincoln on July 1, 1862, gave the concession for building the transcontinental railroad to two companies: the Central Pacific was to start in Sacramento, Ca., and the Union Pacific, to begin at Council Bluffs, Iowa. These two became the biggest corporations in the country.
6. The deal offered the companies was good to start with...but even improved two years later!
a. For every mile that they completed in the plains, they received $16,000 in government bonds.
b. ...$32,000 in the hills...
c. ...and $48,000 in the mountains.
"The Great Railroad Revolution," by Christian Wolmar
7. This alone represented a potential loan of $60 million to the companies.
a. Further, there was a land grant representing more than 31,000 square miles, the size of South Carolina. The sale of said land allowed much of the railroad's financing.
b. This was distributed as 10 square miles per mile of track in strips alternating on either side of the right of way (which was, itself, 400 feet wide).
c. . No government funding until each company had raised millions of dollars, and built 40 miles of track.
8. Railroads began as a business venture....private, not government: Britain played a major role in funding the railroads. From the start, financing had been sought in Europe, and especially in England. Those states that provided support did so via bonds sold largely abroad.
9. Theodore Judah, chief engineer on the Sacramento Valley Line was the visionary, the fanatic, who was equal parts engineer and lobbyist. He had the plan to build the transcontinental through the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
10 . And Theodore Judah was an honest man. Based on the fact that building in the mountains brought three time the amount that the government loaned the company ($48,000 vs. $16,000), the business men claimed that the Sierra Nevadas began some 20 miles before it did....Judah had surveyed the mountains and refused to agree. As this was a difference of $640,000 to the company....Judah was out.
Bain, "Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad," p.17.
a. Lincoln understood the cheating...but wanted the transcontinental built at all costs.
b. As they got more per mile for mountains, the railroad men hired surveyors who claimed that the Sierra Nevadas began miles before they actually did.....Lincoln caught on, and said 'I've heard of men who move mountains....these men move whole mountain ranges.'
He wanted the railroad built.
And so it was.
Know where the two lines met?
Lincoln set the gauge, the distance between rails, as different lines heretofore had different widths....
...know the standard width he set?
I'm certain that many would believe this belongs in History...but my interest was in the relationship between private industry and government, in the financing of the transcontinental.
I had the opportunity to visit the Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento, California, last week...and heard an amazing lecture on the above. I'll give the book I picked up at the end.
1. Early on, most railroads were built by the private sector, government support took the form of various mechanisms, such as allowing companies to run lotteries, granting of monopolies, tax exemptions, and land grants.
a. This was a feeling-out period of a difficult relationship between government and the railroads.
2. The need and feasibility of a transcontinental railroad had been discussed as early as 1820, but not until the 1850's was it seriously considered.
3. On the one hand, it was delayed by the Civil War....but it was the absence of Southern politicians that allowed the necessary legislation to be passed by Congress.
a. The South was opposed because it meant more free-states to be formed.
4. It was the largest railroad project in the world, until the Trans-Siberian 30 years later. The transcontinental had the backing of Abraham Lincoln, and required huge subsidies in the form of both cash, and land grants to the two companies doing the building: the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific.
5. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, signed by Lincoln on July 1, 1862, gave the concession for building the transcontinental railroad to two companies: the Central Pacific was to start in Sacramento, Ca., and the Union Pacific, to begin at Council Bluffs, Iowa. These two became the biggest corporations in the country.
6. The deal offered the companies was good to start with...but even improved two years later!
a. For every mile that they completed in the plains, they received $16,000 in government bonds.
b. ...$32,000 in the hills...
c. ...and $48,000 in the mountains.
"The Great Railroad Revolution," by Christian Wolmar
7. This alone represented a potential loan of $60 million to the companies.
a. Further, there was a land grant representing more than 31,000 square miles, the size of South Carolina. The sale of said land allowed much of the railroad's financing.
b. This was distributed as 10 square miles per mile of track in strips alternating on either side of the right of way (which was, itself, 400 feet wide).
c. . No government funding until each company had raised millions of dollars, and built 40 miles of track.
8. Railroads began as a business venture....private, not government: Britain played a major role in funding the railroads. From the start, financing had been sought in Europe, and especially in England. Those states that provided support did so via bonds sold largely abroad.
9. Theodore Judah, chief engineer on the Sacramento Valley Line was the visionary, the fanatic, who was equal parts engineer and lobbyist. He had the plan to build the transcontinental through the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
10 . And Theodore Judah was an honest man. Based on the fact that building in the mountains brought three time the amount that the government loaned the company ($48,000 vs. $16,000), the business men claimed that the Sierra Nevadas began some 20 miles before it did....Judah had surveyed the mountains and refused to agree. As this was a difference of $640,000 to the company....Judah was out.
Bain, "Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad," p.17.
a. Lincoln understood the cheating...but wanted the transcontinental built at all costs.
b. As they got more per mile for mountains, the railroad men hired surveyors who claimed that the Sierra Nevadas began miles before they actually did.....Lincoln caught on, and said 'I've heard of men who move mountains....these men move whole mountain ranges.'
He wanted the railroad built.
And so it was.
Know where the two lines met?
Lincoln set the gauge, the distance between rails, as different lines heretofore had different widths....
...know the standard width he set?
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