Why The First Transcontinental Railroad Transformed America
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IT’S HISTORY - Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.
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Editor - Karolina Szwata,
Host - Ryan Socash
Music/Sound Design: Dave Daddario
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Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.
To clarify: Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808 - December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.
Thank you for setting this straight
I had the opportunity to visit Promontory Point in Utah for the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad. I went with my ex-husband. We made better friends than spouses. His obsession with trains and my love of history met perfectly in this subject.
Promontory Summit actually. Promontory Point refers to the southern most tip touching the Great Salt Lake. I was there too.
Focusing on the trains and history, which is the subject of this video, that was a great ceremony. Did you get to see the UP 4014 which was restored as part of that anniversary?
@@arrowguy173 yes. It was at the depot in Ogden. We even followed it out of town on its way thru Wyoming. I think that's the same one I had visited in Omaha a few years earlier for an anniversary of Union Pacific. On that trip, the train actually stopped in my hometown on the way to Omaha.
Very interesting. I was there that same day as well, along with my mother and about 40+ other people from PA and NJ. I remember hearing someone say that the Golden Spike National Historic Park gets about 500 visitors/day, and on that occasion, there were 30 times as many people. Additionally, I'd say I have both your and his respective passions (history, trains), as I have a deep interest in history (the town next to my hometown dates back to colonial times) while also being very passionate about trains/railroads.
@@Stussmeister I was sad that the actual museum was closed on that day. I rented a wheelchair for my visit, and was lucky that I was not charged for damages. Getting wheeled around on uneaven ground caused one of the small front wheels to break. Of course, when I was in Ogden visiting the depot museum, my ex-husband accidentally tossed me out of the chair while going up a sidewalk ramp.
Huh. Been advocating this for a while. The Transcontinental Railroad was probably one of the most transformative inventions/events in US history.
Highly recommend, "Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869" , by Stephen Ambrose. It's a great, detailed read about the creation of the route and railroad.
I am like number 100. this channel has become one of my favorites. throughout school HATE, and i mean Despised history class with a passion. With the Turn of the internet and video content, history suddenly has become interesting, and enjoyable to watch. maybe that was the problem, it was the medium in which i was taught history, now with the rise of well made AND documented videos i find it a pleasure to sit here and watch.
At 25 minutes the image of Summit tunnel is actually one in England built by the Manchester and Leeds Railway between 1839 and 1841, then the longest railway tunnel in the world. It is still in daily use after surviving a massive fuel tanker fire nearly 40 years ago.
I acquired a piece of RR track dated 1911 in Sonoma California. And honestly as a metal fabricator I can tell you it’s some pretty good steel! But you can see the wear on it from all the trains that went over it!
This was an unusually long video for this channel, and but still needed to be in order to do justice to a topic about which volumes have been written. Beautiful job, Ryan!
Great stuff, Ryan!!!
Glad you enjoyed it
You should have mentioned that Cheyenne has the Biggest Operating Steam Locomotive in the World, the 4014 Big Boy
The railroad land grants were in a checkerboard pattern. The US government got the other section of land. The railroad companies often lied about the land elevation to increase their profits.
So THAT'S why so much land in the west is owned in a checkerboard pattern. I've wondered about that! Thank you!
@@genevarailfan3909 in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 it established grid patterns of land division. This concept continued for all future Territories & States
Excellent job covering a massive amount of history in 28 minutes!
was that 20 miles of land with the track splitting it in half? That's wider than Chicago!!
Historian Stephen Ambrose wrote a wonderful book of the building of the transcontinental railroad called Nothing Like In the World. It’s an excellent read!
I’d love to read that!
Again a great and informative video. Keep it up
Thanks, will do!
If you leave Sacramento and drive east towards Reno about the time you get tothe Donner Pass you can setill see some of the original tunnels that were made for the Transcontinenral Railroad. can walk through them too as they are no longer being used. It's pretty cool and historic. At 23:50 shows a picture of it.
Yet another fantastic video, love your stuff.
Actually it was Promontory Summit not Promontory Point. Promontory point refers to the southernmost tip of the Promontory mountains touching the Great Salt Lake.
It's a common misconception due to a news reporter who showed up after the ceremony and said Promontory Point in his article.
It’s cool to look at satellite imagery of Wyoming and see where the original line had been in some places before UP realigned sections due to better grades etc. Even old roundhouses and turntables are still visible in the discolouration of the earth. Ames monument is worth a stop.
Along with the nearby tree in a rock, in the median of the I-80, adjacent to the original rail route.
Thank you for all of your research and time spent on all of your projects, I really enjoy all of your subject matters, again thank you...
Thank you very much!
By the way, one of the biggest factors in the choice of route lay in the fact that prior to his entry into politics Lincoln had been a railroad lawyer. He was, in fact, often paid in that railroad land you mentioned. And guess where a huge chunk of that land that Lincoln owned was located? Bingo, if you guessed Council Bluffs, Iowa. Railroad corruption originating during this period continues to plague America to this day.
Thank you for making this video.
Glad it was helpful!
Very interesting and informative. As a self-acknowledged railroad nut, I've been very passionate about the Transcontinental Railroad for quite some time, as I've read numerous books on the subject, visited Golden Spike National Historical Park for the 150th anniversary, and even wrote a research paper on it when I was in college. I also recall reading somewhere that the Transcontinental Railroad was indeed so ambitious for its time that it's often thought of today as the moon shot of the 19th century.
Thank you very much. 👍
Ryan, great watch.... History always makes a enjoyable watch. Anything with vintage steam is even better, BUT nothing beats vintage steam railroads !!! If I only had a dollar for every time I rode the Disneyland R.R. or the Calico R.R. at Knott's Berry Farm I would be a "Multi-Millionaire." Well almost.
Great video
I love history, this is definitely a top tier history Channel.
EXCELLENT WELL RESEARCHED VIDEO.....Thank you...
Old F-4 2 Shoe🇺🇸
We got same up north of canadian pacific railroad.the building both railroad change both country enormous change.i live calgary alberta and lots people visist banff lac louise national park and speechless was built by hand and shovels.people around world visist both main line in usa& canada still marvel of construction.thanks video😊
"the first two world wars"? Was there a third I don't know about, or are you implying there's gonna be a third?
It might come in 10 or 100 years. But war never changes.
The crossing time from the east to the west coast had been reduced to about a month after completion of the Panama Railroad and incorporation of regular steamboat schedules, but it was still subject to tropical fevers, and there was the fate of the SS Central America, which sank in a hurricane in 1857. The line through Temecula Canyon was abandoned quickly because of repeated washouts. The "southern route" for the transcontinental railroad is the easiest in terms of mountain crossings, as can be seen by riding the Sunset Limited, but it would have required ferries to cross the Mississippi River at New Orleans. The first bridge there was completed in 1935. Look up the Huey Long Bridge.
10:59 Got it backwards. It was actually the CP who started construction in California in 1863, whereas the UP started in Omaha two years later.
NEEDLESS, California? Lol, I'm pretty sure it's NEEDLES, but if the shoe fits....Just kidding, love your work!
When the day comes that I finish this project, it will be because Im not good at reading a teleprompter. However, for now, there is still a bit more that I’d like to learn about. Thanks for watching!
A nitpick: The Panama Canal Railroad was completed in 1855. It went, and still goes, from Atlantic to Pacific in 47.6 miles. Does that make it the first trans-continental railroad? Or just a trans-isthmian railroad?
The ride from NYC to California involved a boat ride til 1872, when the first bridge over the Missouri was finished.
There wasn't much compromise on the route, as the confederate/slave states had ceded from the union and as such, had no representation in congress.
The CP took on the project thinking they would at least get paid to build a road bed for a new toll road to Truckee.
They also set a locomotive on a sled and skidded it over the Sierra Nevada to build track past the tunnels, not knowing if they would ever complete the tunnels. If they couldn't connect the track east of the Sierra to the track west of the Sierra, they wouldn't be paid for it.
If you have a 4x4 you can drive some of the old routes of the transcontinental railroad. The old bridges are still there and twkee you to the ogden hustoric site
Now, California is building a high speed railroad at the cost of a billion dollars a mile and it still has not been complete all these years later…
You can still ride trains from the 1870sDenver & Rio Grande line trains at Knottsberry farm.
And several other places, including the Colorado Railroad Museum, the Durango and Silverton scenic railroad, and the Cumbres and Toltec scenic railroad.
Little correction
It's Needles, like in haystack..
Just a little note on nomenclature. The long railroads like this, or the Trans-Siberian one all use the prefix of "trans" properly. That is "across". However in astronomy (which I adore) it is used to mean "beyond". Much to my everlasting chagrin.
3:36...Maine became a state in 1820, not 1842, as part of the Missouri Compromise. MO also became a state in 1820.
23:46 Ya i remember this moment from the Will Smith movie Wild Wild West
have u seen 'hell on wheels "it is the making of this railway line
a coast to coast cable car line would cost next to nothing and capacity would be close to infinite
(humans are really good at pulling cables )
If only we had gotten the start of the o.g. trans-continental railroad, we may still be the 3rd largest metro in the U.S. Although, we probably would've lost a lot of our Victorian charm (like Chicago) if we had... so everything happens for a reason. :]
The trans continental routes and telegraph changed everything
Errr, not a single mile of the interstate highway system existed until well after WW2 fyi
There was the United States Numbered Highway System that existed prior that was the beginning concept of an interstate highway system. It wasn't limited access like modern highways were since you could have houses and businesses curbside that ran through towns/cities and had traffic lights.
Nice.
It is Promintory Summit and not Promintory Point. Promintory Point which is in the Great Salt Lake.
17:56 This became a Santa Fe's third division
You forgot the part when the railroad were used in the slaughter of millions of bison
7 days / 6 nights in 1869. It still takes 4 days / 3 nights today
Read Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow, by Dee Brown. It totally debunks all these myths about the Transcontinental Railroad. It was never a substitute for sea cargo around the horn, and always was a money loser.
Diverging from the transcontinental railroad is confusing. Trucking started taking business from the railroads after WW1, airlines started taking passengers in the late 1950’s.
Question...was the golden spike actually gold?
Yes
Yes. It's in the museum on the Stanford Univ Campus.
The yellow stripes randomly crossing the screen are really distracting.
I keep a framed picture of Promontory Point at my house, my great, great, great grandfather is pictured, who was a surveyor from Germany.
Great information, but you need to work on your pronunciations.
👍
A very white account of the building of the railroad. Lack lots of facts.
They wiped out the native Indians🤔
Shytown gal living @ Oceanside! Our Illinois public schools certainly made an appropriate big deal out of us being the country's rail hub but I was excited to hear you tell it!