Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST AMERICAN TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROAD. BY G. L. FOWLER, Member of the American Railway Master Mechanics’ Association. SEVENTY years ago the country lying west of the great Missouri River was practically an unknown country, in which very little interest was taken by the population of the Eastern States. Califor- nia, on the Pacific Coast, was part of Mexico. To reach it meant a weary sea voyage of several months round the stormy Horn, or a toilsome land journey across plains and deserts tenanted only by hostile Indians, who hovered continually on the flanks and in front and rear of the canvas-covered, ox- drawn wagon. In the very early days of the nineteenth, century, Lewis and Clarke made their famous expedition across the continent, reaching the Pacific at the mouth of the Columbia River. Daring hunters like Jim Bridger, Jacques Laramie, and the “ Path- finder ”—General John C. Fremont—followed, and in 1832 a white man first took a team over the continental divide. fl,408) As early as 1830, Asa Whitney began to dream dreams of a great railroad running from ocean to ocean, which should pour the riches of China, Japan, and India 4 . 1 , , , . . Asa Whitney, into the lap of tne population of the Atlantic coast. Unable to realize that his schemes were far ahead of their time, he wasted his wealth in vain attempts to gain the popular ear, and died a poor man. More practical than Whitney, Brigham Young led his band of Mormons in 1847 across the great desert, and founded Salt Lake City, thus establishing, as it were, a half-way house for a trans-continental route. In the following year a treaty was ratified between the Govern- ments of the United States and Mexico, by which the whole of upper California was ceded to the United States. Then followed the gold discoveries of 1849. Far-away California, a name scarcely yet heard of by the mob, jumped into fame as an El 9 vol. in.