How We Built The Union Pacific Railway

This rare and long-out-of-print collection of papers and addresses by some of America's early railroad movers and shakers provides a fascinating look into the birth of an industry. They helped change the American landscape, economy, and culture and here is the beginning in their own words. Grenville Dodge was a Civil War general and was central to the planning and construction of the railways. For the first time, this long-out-of-print book is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample. This edition is abridged and annotated.

The major recollections of Major-General Grenville M. Dodge as chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railway. In addition to the main section, the book prints various speeches of Dodge about railway matters, his speech before Congress in 1868 upon the Union Pacific, his recollections of Harriman, and the problems of the civil engineer during the Civil War and upon the frontier.

Excerpt from How We Built the Union Pacific Railway, and Other Railway Papers and Addresses In 1836 the first public meeting to consider the project of a Pacific railway was called by John Plumbe, a civil engineer of Dubuque, Iowa. Interest in a Pacific railway increased from this time. The explorations of Fremont in 1842 and 1846 brought the attention of Congress, and A. C. Whitney was zealous and efficient in the cause from 1840 to 1850. The first practical measure was Senator Salmon P. Chase's bill, making an appropriation for the explorations of different routes for a Pacific railway in 1853. Numerous bills were introduced in Congress between 1852 and 1860, granting subsidies and lands, and some of them appropriating as large a sum as $96,000,000 for the construction of the road. One of these bills passed one of the houses of Congress. The results of the explorations ordered by Congress were printed in eleven large volumes, covering the country between the parallels of latitude thirty-second on the south and forty-ninth on the north, and demonstrating the feasibility of building a Pacific railway, but at a cost on any one of the lines much larger than the Union Pacific and Central Pacific were built for. It is a singular fact that in all these explorations the most feasible line in an engineering and commercial point of view, the line with the least obstacles to overcome, of lowest grades and least curvature was never explored and reported on. Private enterprise explored and developed that line along the forty-second parallel of latitude. This route was made by the buffalo, next used by the Indians, then by the fur traders, next by the Mormons, and then by the overland immigration to California and Oregon. It was known as the Great Platte Valley Route. On this trail, or close to it, was built the Union and Central Pacific Railroads to California, and the Oregon Short Line branch of the Union Pacific to Oregon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt: ... HOW WE BUILT THE UNION PACIFIC RAILWAY. r. In 1836 the first public meeting to consider the project of a Pacific railway was called by John Plumbe.a civil engineer of Dubuque, Iowa. Interest in a Pacific railway increased from this time. The explorations of Fremont in 1842 and 1846 brought the attention of Congress, and A. C. Whitney was zealous and efficient in the cause from 1840 to 1850. The first practical measure was Senator Salmon P. Chase's bill, making an appropriation for the explorations of different routes for a Pacific railway in 1853. Numerous bills were introduced in Congress between 1852 and 1860, granting subsidies and lands, and some of them appropriating as large a sum as $96,000,000 for the construction of the road. One of these bills passed one of the houses of Congress. The results of the explorations ordered by Congress were printed in eleven large volumes, covering the country between the parallels of latitude thirty-second on the south and forty-ninth on the north, and demonstrating the feasibility of building a Pacific railway, but at a cost on any one of the lines much larger than the Union Pacific and Central Pacific were built for. It is a singular fact that in all these explorations the most feasible line in an engineering and commercial point of view, the line with the least obstacles to overcome, of lowest grades and least curvature was never explored and reported on. Private enterprise explored and developed that line along the forty-second parallel of latitude. This route was made by the buffalo, next used by the Indians, then by the fur traders, next by the Mormons, and then by the overland immigration to California and Oregon. It was known as the Great Platte Valley Route. On this trail, or close to it, ..

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.