The first railway in America was constructed in 1764, but it was called the "gravity road." Capt. John Montressor built it for military purposes at the Niagara portage in Lewiston, New York. Railways were at first created to cut down friction in moving heavily loaded wheeled vehicles. Reading Howell and Thomson composed the first practical wooden tracks for a tramroad. A tramroad is used for easy transportation of wagons and trams.
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Location of Lewison, NY.
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A type of Tramroad
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As time progressed so did that of the railways. The first greatest advancement in the railroad industry was the first Transcontinental Railroad. Throughout the 1860s, the railroad was built and officially completed on May 10th 1869. The railway connected between the Eastern coast and California. At this time California was quickly becoming a mature state. The new railroad made an economic boom for the United States. President Abraham Lincoln had wanted the railways combined to bring California apart of the Union during the Civil War.
"The route followed the well established Oregon, Mormon and California
Trails. The new line began in Omaha, Nebraska, followed the Platte
River, crossed the Rocky Mountains at South Pass in Wyoming and then
through northern Utah and Nevada before crossing the Sierras to
Sacramento, California. Additional track was laid to connect Denver,
Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah and other cities not directly on the
route." (tcrr.com)
Six hundred and ninety miles of tracks were laid which was called the Central Pacific. The Union Pacific had tracks with the miles of 1,087 put down. The connection of the two lines were at Promontory Summit, Utah.
Route of the first Transcontinental Railroad.
Original artwork by DanMS subject to the GNU Free Documentation License
Many different assemblies of people provided hands to help with the important transportation road of the future. Irish laborers, veterans of the Civil War, Mormons, who constructed most of the road in Utah, and Chinese immigrants. The Chinese people did most of the work on the Central Pacific track and received less than a dollar, which is much less than the white people. They then went on to having a strike but only gained a small increase of salary.
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The famous "Golden Spike" was drove in by Governor Stanford. It had symbolized the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Even though the name of the spike was said to be golden it was only plated gold, for gold would be too soft to for holding the tracks together. The hammer was hooked to a telegraph so that for each hammered spike (there were four spikes put in that day) a telegraph click would be sent so that everyone can know about it. It was to be known as the first mass media event, but because of technical difficulties a telegrapher had to send out the clicks. This made it also known as the first "fake" mass media event. As soon as a telegraph was sent "DONE" and people left to celebrate, ordinary spikes replaced the four hammered in. A six-month journey from coast-to-coast became only a one week journey from that day on. The United States of America had great celebrations all around!
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