Moving West

Travel by RailIn 1850, steam-powered ships still provided much of the

nation’s transportation. Over the following decades, however, improvements in train and track design, plus the construction of new rail lines, gave railroads a big boost. Travel west would be easier than ever.

The Transcontinental Railroad

• Project began in 1862– Pacific Railway Acts

• Land grants and gov’t loans given to two companies – Union Pacific, & Central Pacific

– Central Pacific• Began lying track

eastward out of Sacramento

– Union Pacific• Began lying track

westward from OmahaBoth hired Irish and Chinese

immigrants.

• May 10, 1869– Two groups met at

Promontory Summit in Utah. The Transcontinental RR was complete.

Brainstorming Push and Pull Factors

• Push Factors?– What is making me want to get out of here?

• Pull Factors?– What is making me want to go West?

Push Factors West• Civil War

– Southern Farmers• Plantations ruined by

Sherman’s March– Slaves

• “Exodusters”– Try to escape the

persecution of Southern Reconstruction policies.

• Costs– Land in the East was

increasingly costly.

• Ethnic and Religious Oppression– Mormons = Salt Lake City

• Others?

Pull Factors• Wealth– Gold?

• California - 1849– Land speculation

• People who bought up large sections of land with the goal of selling it later for a profit.

• Government Help– Pacific Railway Acts

• Large land grants were given to major RR companies.

– Work?– Morrill Land-Grant Act

• Granted state gov’ts millions of acres of western lands to sell. Profits were to be used for “Land-Grant” colleges specializing in agriculture and mechanical arts.

– University of Illinois, 1867.– Homestead Act

• Settlers were given 160 acres of land if they…– Were 21 years old– Built a house and lived there for 6 months a

year.– Farmed the land 5 years in a row

The Settlers…

• Three Groups Settled the “West”:– Miners

– Ranchers

– Farmers