What was the reason for the building of the Transcontinental Rail Road?

What was the reason for the building of the Transcontinental Rail Road?

A transcontinental railroad, linking America from coast to coast had been dreamt of as early as 1836. But it was the American Civil was that underlined the need for such a transcontinental rail road. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act that would turn this dream into reality.

The building of the railway required enormous feats of labour in the crossing of plains and high mountains. The Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad, the two privately chartered federally backed enterprises, built the line westward and eastward respectively.

The greatest historical event in transportation on the continent occurred at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869, as the Union Pacific tracks joined those of the Central Pacific Railroad. A golden spike was driven to mark the joining of the tracks.

The Transcontinental Rail Road created a nation-wide mechanized transportation. It played an important role in the development of the American West, and ushered in an age of modern transportation. America was now joined from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean with bands of steel!