Transcontinental Railroad Completed
Completed on 10 May 1869 with the driving of a ceremonial golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, the first transcontinental railroad joined the Central Pacific, built eastward from Sacramento largely by Chinese labourers, with the Union Pacific, built westward from the Missouri River largely by Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans. Backed by federal land grants and loans under the Pacific Railway Acts, the line cut a journey that had taken months by wagon or ship to about a week. It bound the Pacific coast to the rest of the Union as a single economic and military space, accelerated settlement and resource extraction across the West, and standardised time and commerce across the continent. For the Plains nations it was catastrophic, opening their lands to settlers and hastening the destruction of the bison herds on which their way of life depended.
- Year: 1869 CE
- Category: Technological
