The Railroad and the Frontier West

Abstract

The last half of the 19th century witnessed the settlement of our country's last frontier, the Ameri can West. Such an impressive feat of conquering so vast an area in a relatively short space of time could not have occurred without a reli able and efficient means of trans portation?the railroad. The con tribution railroads made to the Trans-Mississippi West cannot be overestimated. Looking toward the West in the early 19th century, it soon became apparent to its future settlers that transportation techniques that had worked in the East would be im possible in the West. Generally, the West lacked the proper building materials for roads and the neces sary waterways for steamboats and canals. A new tool was needed. A network of railroad tracks was ob viously necessary, but even the railroad had to overcome difficult obstacles before it could prove its worth to the West. Railroad building in the West did not share the advantages of railroad building in the East. The West offered no established com munities in which to secure mater ial and labor and which offered enough traffic to support the rail road once completed. In the sparsely populated West, the rail road had to take the lead role in settlement in the hope that once completed, settlers would shadow their westward movement and pro vide adequate markets for their survival. Discussion of a railroad con necting the East with the West had been ongoing for several decades before the Civil War. Asa Whitney, a New York merchant hoping to increase trade with the Orient, was an ardent supporter of a transcon tinental railroad during the 1840s. Public interest in such an endeavor increased during this decade just as the United States increased its ter ritory by acquiring Oregon from England and by its victory over Mexico. Shortly thereafter, the dis covery of gold in California and the western exodus which followed demanded an efficient and rapid means of transportation. Two obstacles still stood in the way of a transcontinental line. Would the massive undertaking be built and financed by private or