Railroad fever : building the Transcontinental Railroad, 1830-1870

The Resource Railroad fever : building the Transcontinental Railroad, 1830-1870
Label
Railroad fever : building the Transcontinental Railroad, 1830-1870
Title remainder
building the Transcontinental Railroad, 1830-1870
Statement of responsibility
Monica Halpern
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
  • Presents a history of the building of the transcontinental railroad and its effects on American life. By the 1840s, daring Americans were trickling westward to begin a new life in the great wide open. When gold was discovered in 1848, the promise of riches drew people by the thousands out to California. But the journey was slow and dangerous, since the best ways of travelling were by wagon and on foot. During the "railroad fever" of the 1830s, thousands of miles of track were laid, mostly throughout the Northeast and the South. ... Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862, allowing for the start of the first transcontinental railroad. Though construction problems and hard times confronted them, American workers, Chinese immigrants, and former slaves pounded away through the rough geography of the western U.S., paving a path for the new train
  • The building of the railroad turned into a great race between two companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific, to see who could finish their part of the railroad faster. The company that got farthest stood to make the most money. The "great race" turned into a national pastime, with reports of progress dominating the news. Railroad Fever illuminates the struggles of the railroad worker, the anger of the Plains Indians, and the many changes in both American life and geography that were prompted by the railroad. The completion of the transcontinental railroad left empty boomtowns across the country and changed the ethnic face of America
Member of
Cataloging source
DLC
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • maps
Index
index present
Intended audience
720L
Intended audience source
Lexile
Interest level
MG
Literary form
non fiction
Reading level
5
Series statement
Crossroads America
Study program name
Accelerated Reader AR
Target audience
pre adolescent

Context

Context of Railroad fever : building the Transcontinental Railroad, 1830-1870

Work of

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