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"The necessity that now is accessible for making lines of railroad and telegraphic communication between your Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the continent is no longer a question for debate; it is conceded by everyone. In order to maintain our present position on the Pacific, we should have some more speedy and direct method of intercourse than is at present afforded by the option through the property of a international electricity." - 1856 statement created by the Select Committee on the Pacific Railroad and Telegraph of the united states House of Staff The Transcontinental Railroad, laid over the United States during the 1860s, remains the very epitome of contradiction. On the one side, it was a triumph of executive skills over thousands of miles of difficult ground, but on the other side, it drained the natural resources in those places practically dried up. It "civilized" the American Western world by rendering it easier for ladies and children to visit there, but it dispossessed Native American civilizations that got lived there for years. It made the occupations of several men and damaged the lives from numerous others. It was striking and careless, ingenious and cruel, gentle and violent, and it enriched some and bankrupted others. In short, it was the best and worst of 19th century America doing his thing. As settlers forced western and the Silver Rush brought an influx of People in the usa to California, the necessity for something similar to the Transcontinental Railroad was evident to the federal government in the 1850s, and by making use of private companies, administration officials conducted all types of land surveys in order to plot a course.
