Transcontinental Railroad

The Route for the Transcontinental
Railroad

The Transcontinental Railroad was built because Oregon was opening and California was being admitted to the Union. With both of these states becoming popular, Americans thought the railroad was needed to connect the West Coast to the rest of the country. Before the railroad was built, in the 1850's, getting to the West Coast required many weeks on land or a very long sea voyage around the tip of South America. The railroad would decrease the time and hardship of the journey to the West Coast, in fact, it would reduce the journey to four days. The railroad would also promote growth and settlement along the route. The Transcontinental Railroad was a causing factor of the Gadsden Purchase and the Kansas-Nebraska Act because the U.S. needed the territory from both to accommodate the Northerners and the Southerners, therefore the Transcontinental Railroad contributed to the Civil War.