At the time, it was the largest rescue package ever granted by the U. On May 10, , President Rutherford B. President Hayes embraced the new technology, though he rarely received phone calls. In fact, the Treasury Department possessed the only other direct Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Eight climbers die on Mount Everest during a storm on May 10, It was the worst loss of life ever on the mountain on a single day.
Author Jon Krakauer, who himself attempted to climb the peak that year, wrote a best-selling book about the incident, Into Thin Air, which was By the end of the year he was officially promoted to director.
This began his year tenure in power, during which time he personally shaped American criminal justice in the Most observers viewed the prisoner release as an attempt by the communist government of China to The South loses one of its boldest generals on May 10, , when year-old Thomas J. In the first two years of the war, Jackson The Central Pacific Railroad barely remained solvent. It was, instead, the Southern Pacific Railroad, which eventually took control of the Central Pacific Railroad, that deserves credit for creating economic expansion as it leveraged speed to monetize California produce.
Image credit: Stanford News Service. So, they faced considerable challenges after the momentous event in Utah. In addition, the transportation of goods at the time was better suited to steamships. By the s, the Central Pacific Railroad was, White said, virtually worthless.
The railroad was, however, evidence of the promise of the relatively nascent profession of civil engineering, according to engineering historian Paul Giroux, who described the unprecedented scale of construction — often in challenging conditions — of the First Transcontinental Railroad to members of the Stanford Historical Society at their recent annual meeting.
The tales of their shady railroad business deals, as well as those of the Union Pacific Railroad, have lingered. Stanford, she said, was a visionary who believed in the promise of California. He was politically savvy and would serve both as California governor and U. It was a ruthlessly competitive business — and that was not unique to the Associates. Jones said that Stanford approached every venture — business or otherwise — with a commitment to improvement. That approach can be seen in the California vineyards he created, the racehorses he raised and the Palo Alto farm he nurtured and — ultimately — the university he founded.
For many years, Jones said, the university was deeply associated with the railroad. Students came from across the country to study railroad engineering.
A Stanford Daily article announced an exhibition at the Stanford Library on the California railroad from its earliest days, featuring maps, illustrations and copies of telegraphs. Its name has since lent heft to an annual alumni recognition called the Gold Spike Award.
In addition, the Gov. The Gov. Stanford locomotive, brought to campus in , in the s went to the California State Railroad Museum, where it is on prominent display. Jones said the Gov. Stanford locomotive was moved to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento in the s, where it is available for public viewing. But the legacy of the Big Four has not faded. Oddly, all of their family lines eventually died out. They often lived in the tunnels as they worked their way through the solid granite, saving precious time and energy from entering and exiting the worksite each day.
They were routinely lowered down sheer cliff faces in makeshift baskets on ropes where they drilled holes, filled them with explosives, lit the fuse and then were yanked up as fast as possible to avoid the blast. While the Central Pacific fought punishing conditions moving eastward through mountains, across ravines, and through blizzards, the Union Pacific faced resistance from the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes who were seeing their homelands invaded and irrevocably changed.
The railroad workers were armed and oftentimes protected by U. Calvary and friendly Pawnee Indians, but the workforce routinely faced Native American raiding parties that attacked surveyors and workers, stole livestock and equipment, and pulled up track and derailed locomotives.
Both railroad companies battled against their respective obstacles to lay the most miles of track, therefore gaining the most land and money. Although the Central Pacific had a two-year head start over the Union Pacific, the rough terrain of the Sierra Nevadas limited their construction to only miles by the end of But once through the Sierras, the Central Pacific rail lines moved at tremendous speed, crossing Nevada and reaching the Utah border in From the east, the Union Pacific completed its line through Wyoming and was moving at an equal tempo from the east.
No end point had been set for the two rail lines when President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act in , but a decision had to be made soon. By early , the Central Pacific and Union Pacific were closing in on each other across northern Utah, aided by a Mormon workforce under contract to both companies.
Indeed, at one point the graders from both companies, working ahead of track layers, actually passed one another as they were unwilling to concede territory to their competitors.
Less than one month later, on May 10, , locomotives from the two railroads met nose-to-nose to signal the joining of the two lines. At p. Canons boomed in San Francisco and Washington. Bells rang and fire whistles shrieked as people celebrated across the country. The nation was indeed united. Manifest Destiny was a reality. The six-month trip to California had been reduced to two weeks.
And within only a few years, the transcontinental railroad turned the frontier wilderness of the western territories into regions populated by European-Americans, enabling business and commerce to proliferate and effectively ending the traditional Native American way of life. The Pacific Railway A Brief History of Building the Transcontinental Railroad Before the advent of the transcontinental railroad , a journey across the continent to the western states meant a dangerous six month trek over rivers, deserts, and mountains.
Maps, images, and other content used in this site are derived from the collections of the Linda Hall Library. Pacific Railway Route Almost immediately, conflicts arose between Judah and his business partners over the construction of the Central Pacific line.
0コメント