Every person in our world likes to be comfortable whenever they have geared up for a travel. On the other hand, the travel and transport was very difficult in the past centuries. One of the most important developments in terms of the transport worldwide was a transcontinental railroad. It is the right time to know transcontinental railroad facts in detail.

The First Transcontinental Railroad

The Pacific Railroad, Overland Route or The First Transcontinental Railroad was constructed in between 1863 and 1869 for connecting the West Coast of the United States to the East Coast. Companies involved in this project were Union Pacific Railroad Company, Central Pacific Company and Western Pacific Company.  The total length of this railroad was 1,776 miles and built for connecting the Pacific and Atlantic coasts in the United States.

Even though the ideal for the transcontinental railroad was present in the nation for a few decades before the official authorization by the Pacific Railroad Acts in 1862 and 1864, there were so many obstacles. For example, American Civil War affected the whole plans on the subject of the transport system enhancement in the nation.

There were many difficulties and dangers in the transcontinental railroads at first. General Greville Dodge was a real hero in the Union Army. He took the whole control as a chief engineer for this project allotted to the Union Pacific. He and his team moved westward in 1866. The main drawbacks to this company’s workers were poor support in terms of the overall safety, bloody attacks from Native Americans.  Native Americans did not understand the real purpose of the transcontinental railroad. They attacked workers in this project since they need to protect their native lands.

Chinese labourers were hired by Charles Crocker in 1865 for realizing the transcontinental railroad plan on time.  More than 50, 000 Chinese immigrants were worked in this project on the West Coast.  They suffered from some problems like pervasive racism. On the other hand, they were tireless workers and blasted tunnels through the granite by using nitro-glycerine and gunpowder.

The foremost purpose of the transcontinental railroad was to assist every resident and industry. Residents need the most convenient travel and industries need goods transportation from east to west across the nation out of harm’s way.

Big Four

The overall Central Pacific Railroad was controlled by Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Collis P. Huntington.  These four men were called as Big Four. They played the most important roles during this project.  If you listen to transcontinental railroad facts available in any source, you will be focused on these four men immediately. San Francisco was connected with Sacramento in November 1869 by the Central Pacific Company.

The Pony Express was helped to provide evidence for the passable nature of the central route in winter. This mail delivery service was very helpful to connect California and Missouri. Residents used to send mails using horse carriage before this mail delivery service.  The mail was sent from Missouri to California after a few weeks rather than days.