Cengage Learning
Cenage: Credit Mobilier Scandal
A very interesting excerpt from a book published in 1873, recounting the formation of the Credit Moblier Company, explaining who created it, and why the company was at the heart of a huge scandal in the building of the transcontinental...
Calisphere: University of California Libraries
University of California: Calisphere: 1870 1900: The Transcontinental Railroad
Original photos and images highlighting the impact that the Transcontinental Railroad had on the lives and perspectives of Americans and Native Americans.
Stanford University
Stanford University Library: Hart Project
Explore the collection of 364 photographs which are plotted within this 3-D map experience recreating Alfred A. Hart's journey along the Central Pacific Railroad. The goal of his 1860s expedition was to solicit investment in the...
Ibis Communications
Eye Witness to History: Completing the Transcontinental Railroad, 1869
An overview of the construction of America's Transcontinental Railway, and its completion when the last spike was driven (after several misses) in Utah to connect the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railways. Travel across the...
Stanford University
Stanford University: Spacial History: Transcontinental Railroad, 1879 1893
The railroad developers built the rails in anticipation of growth and sprawl across the United States. This visual shows the details of the increase of settlements, yet not quite enough to sustain the expanse of the Transcontinental...
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr Photographic History Museum: Constructing the Central Pacific Railroad
From a book written by a civil engineer, John Debo Galloway, this article discusses the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad including construction methods, problems, and the eventual meeting of the rails at Promontory Point.
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr History Museum: Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys of 1853 54
Provides information and documents of Jefferson Davis, George McClellan and the War Department's Pacific Railroad explorations and surveys of 1853 to 1854.
The Newberry Library
Newberry: Historical Geography: Map 11: The Transcontinental Rail Network, 1878
Lesson for K-12 using historical maps examine the geographic, political, and economic factors that influenced the growth of railroads.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Comparing Travel Before and After the Transcontinental Railroad [Pdf]
Students will compare two primary accounts of overland travel in the 1860s,one by stagecoach, the other by railroad, to see how travel changed upon completion of the transcontinental railroad.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Transcontinental Railroad: Ride the Rails on a Button Train [Pdf]
Students will learn how the Transcontinental Railroad enhanced travel across the country. They will compare how quickly people travel today as then. Students will create "button trains" and discuss what trains carried in 1869 and now.
Digital Public Library of America
Dpla: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
This exhibition explores the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad and its impact on American westward expansion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Railroad, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
A speech and an engraving that illustrate how the railroad helped to unite the country after the Civil War.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Impact of the Transcontinent Railroad
Provides extensive lesson plans that use photographs, documents, and posters to begin to understand the importance of the Transcontinental Railroad, as well as its influence and the changes it brought to the country.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Iron Horse: Asa Whitney
From a lengthy essay on the history of the railroad in the United States. This section describes what Asa Whitney did to promote the idea of a transcontinental railroad in the North. His efforts provoked the South into campaigning for...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Iron Horse: Conflicting Personal Interests
From a lengthy essay on the history of the railroad in the United States. This section describes the efforts of Jefferson Davis and others to survey lands for the best route for a transcontinental railroad. It also discusses the...
PBS
Pbs: Who Made America?: Innovators: Theodore Dehone Judah
The prophet of the transcontinental railroad did not live to see it built. Yet his scouting, surveying, lobbying, and fundraising efforts defined the route and prepared the way for the technology that would unite a nation.
PBS
Pbs: Who Made America? Theodore Dehone Judah
Judah died on a trip to New York, contracting yellow fever on his voyage through Panama. A transcontinental railroad, had it existed, would have spared his life.
Other
Brown Quarterly: The Chinese and the Transcontinental Railroad [Pdf]
From The Brown Quaterly (1997) an article describing the role of the Chinese immigrant in building the railroad. Includes images of the Chinese railroad workers. (PDF - scroll down to page 7)
Other
California State Railroad Museum: The Transcontinental Railroad
A brief history of the first transcontinental railroad and the vision of Theodore Judah as well as the financing of the "Big Four."
Stanford University
Stanford University: Spatial History: Distribution of Union Pacific Stockholders
This map reveals the way ownership of the Union Pacific concentrated in New England and New York. It also shows how the West got a federally financed railroad, and the east got the insider networks which controlled it.
Library of Congress
Loc: Railroad Maps Collection: Transcontinental Railroad
Find out about plans for a transcontinental railroad and surveys which plotted out possible routes. Part of a larger site on the history of railroads and maps.
Read Works
Read Works: Building a Railroad to Cross the Country
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the building of the transcontinental railroad. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Utah History Encyclopedia: Golden Spike National Historic Site
This resource provides information about the first transcontinental railroad, which was built by nearly 30,000 Irish, German, Italian, and Chinese laborers.
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr: Lewis Metzler Clement: A Pioneer of the Central Pacific Railroad
Provides biographical information on Lewis Metzler Clement, the chief engineer for the Central Pacific Railroad, who both designed much of the route and supervised construction of the railroad. Includes several primary sources ranging...