When The Scheme For The Construction Of

The United States As We Know It Today Is Largely The Result Of Mechanical Inventions, And In Particular Of Agricultural Machinery And The Railroad. One Transformed Millions Of Acres Of Uncultivated Land Into Fertile Farms, While The Other Furnished The Transportation Which Carried The Crops To Distant Markets.

The Public Conviction That A Railroad Linking The West And The East Was An Absolute Necessity Became So Pronounced After The Gold Discoveries Of '49 That Congress Passed An Act In 1853 Providing For A Survey Of Several Lines From The Mississippi To The Pacific.

As The Contest Proceeded, Public Interest Increased And The Entire Country Watched To See Which Company Would Win The Big Government Subsidies Through The Mountains.

Horses And Mules, And Even Sail Cars, Made More Rapid Progress Than Did The Earliest Locomotive.

In The Decade Before The Civil War Various North And South Lines Of Railway Were Projected And Some Of These Were Assisted By Grants Of Land From The Federal Government