1830
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| The first steam locomotive in the United States carries passengers and goods between Baltimore and Ellicott’s Mills, Md.
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1841
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| Settlers begin migrating west across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains on the Oregon-California Trail.
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| 1845 |
| Asa Whitney presents his first resolution to Congress proposing the funding of a railroad to the Pacific.
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Jan. 24, 1848
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| Gold is discovered in northern California.
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Sept. 9, 1850
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| California becomes the 30th state admitted into the Union. Agitation for
a transcontinental railroad to link California to the eastern states
soon follows.
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November 1860
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| Abraham Lincoln elected president of the United States. Several southern
states will secede from the Union in response over the next few months.
Engineer Theodore Judah meets Sacramento merchant Collis P. Huntington,
who agrees to invest in a new railroad project. Huntington is joined by
Mark Hopkins, James Bailey, Charles Crocker, and Leland Stanford to
form the first board of directors of the Central Pacific Railroad.
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| April 12, 1861 |
| Confederate troops fire on Fort Sumter, the U.S. military installation
in the harbor of Charleston, S.C., initiating the American Civil War. |
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| July 1, 1862 |
| Lincoln signs the Pacific Railroad Act. The document recognizes Central
Pacific efforts to build the California line while simultaneously
chartering a Union Pacific Railroad Co. to build west from the Missouri
River. The act grants each enterprise 6,400 acres of land and up to
$48,000 in government bonds per mile built, depending on the nature of
the terrain. |
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| Oct. 26, 1863 |
| The Central Pacific lays its first rails in Sacramento, Calif. |
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| Oct. 30, 1863 |
| Financier and railroad promoter Thomas C. Durant, an active investor in
Midwestern lines, arranges for his appointment as vice president and
general manager of the Union Pacific Railroad. |
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| July 1, 1864 |
| Congress passes a revised Pacific Railroad Act. It doubles the land
grant, cedes all natural resources on the line to the railroads, and
removes limitations on individual stock ownership. |
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| October 1864 |
| Having previously organized a separate company named Crédit Mobilier of
America, Durant and a few associates arrange for it to obtain the
contract for building the Union Pacific. Doing so allows Durant and
investors in Crédit Mobilier to profit from the railroad’s construction,
no matter the company’s financial difficulties. |
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| Jan. 20, 1865 |
| Central Pacific begins using Chinese workers. |
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| April 9, 1865 |
| Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union Army Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. |
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| July 10, 1865 |
| Union Pacific begins laying tracks line in Omaha, Neb.
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| Late Summer 1865 |
| Central Pacific crews begin tunneling through the
Sierra Nevada using a workforce primarily composed of Chinese
immigrants. |
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| Oct. 6, 1866 |
| Union Pacific crews pass the 100th meridian line on the prairies of Nebraska. |
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| Aug. 28, 1867 |
| Central Pacific completes Summit Tunnel in the Sierra Nevada mountains. |
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| Dec. 12, 1867 |
| Crédit Mobilier announces a hefty dividend to its investors. Various
members of Congress acquire shares in the firm through the auspices of
their colleague Oakes Ames. Ames, seeking to obtain allies for the Union
Pacific, thus inadvertently lays the groundwork for one of the greatest
political scandals of the 19th century. |
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| April 16, 1868 |
| Union Pacific construction reaches the highest point on both lines,
Sherman Summit, at an elevation of 8,200 feet in the Rockies. |
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| April 28, 1869 |
| Central Pacific crews lay a remarkable 10 miles of track in one day. |
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| May 10, 1869 |
| The Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads join together at Promontory Summit, Utah. |
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| Sept. 4, 1872 |
| The news media break the story on the Crédit Mobilier scandal,
implicating a number of government officials, including Speaker of the
House James G. Blaine of Maine, Vice-President Schuyler Colfax of
Indiana, senator and Republican vice-presidential candidate Henry Wilson
of Massachusetts, and Rep. James A. Garfield of Ohio. |
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| February 1873 |
| A Congressional committee investigates Crédit Mobilier, although few
suffer any consequences, with the exception of Oakes Ames, who is
censured by the House. |
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| September 1873 |
| Excessive investment in railroad stocks contributes to financial
instability in the United States, including a lack of capital. The
American economy soon enters a lengthy and devastating national
depression. |
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| 1881 |
| The Southern Pacific Railroad, connecting with the Texas and Pacific lines, establishes the second transcontinental link. |
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| 1882 |
| Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, which bans immigration of
Chinese laborers into the United States for a period of 10 years.
Congress will extend this act in 1892, and again indefinitely in 1904. |
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| 1883 |
| The Northern Pacific completes its main line from the Great Lakes to the
Pacific with its own “golden spike” ceremony at Gold Creek, Mont.,
completing the third transcontinental railroad. Unlike the first, it is
built by a single company, constructing its route from both east and
west. |
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| 1887 |
| Legislation is enacted to create the Interstate Commerce Commission, a
federal agency intended to regulate railroad shipping practices, in
response to persistent complaints from rural populations about the
excesses of railroad corporations, such as discriminatory freight rates. |