1869

Transcontinental Railroad

Before the transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869, the normal way for a person to get from a city like St. Louis or Omaha to San Francisco was on a wagon pulled by oxen. This journey took months and was fraught with danger. Once the track for the transcontinental railroad was complete, the trip from Omaha took less than four days. The train trip was far safer and more comfortable. You could take a lot of luggage. And it was reasonably priced, given the huge amount of time and trouble it saved. The fare from Omaha to San Francisco in 1869 was $81.50, or roughly $1,400 in today’s dollars.

But how did the engineers do it? Sure, people had built lots of railroad lines by this time. But how could they start construction from two cities separated by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) and then meet in the middle?

The answer lies in the surveyors. The first step was to pick the route. This was done by surveying five possible routes and comparing them, and it was a process authorized by Congress. The Corps of Topographical Engineers, a division of the army, surveyed the five different routes. Imagine working your way across 2,000 miles of rough terrain and mountains with devices like a Gunter’s chain (to measure distance) and a transit (to measure angles). It took two years. But even with these simple tools, the accuracy was impressive.

Then the chosen route became a gigantic civil engineering project. Engineers had to design and build tunnels and bridges, cut and fill to create level roadbeds, blast passes through and around hillsides, and so on. The section of track through the Sierra Nevada mountains was particularly challenging. At the same time, a telegraph line was installed, making near-instantaneous communication possible across the entire continent. North America was the first continent humankind spanned.

When completed, the track at Omaha connected into the existing railroad network. A person could travel from New York to San Francisco in less than a week. It was an amazing accomplishment—one of the greatest engineering achievements of the nineteenth century.

SEE ALSO Gunter’s Chain (1620), Erie Canal (1825), Telegraph System (1837), Professional Engineer Licensing (1907), Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940).

Laying the last rail in the transcontinental railroad, 1869.