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.
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...
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.
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."
Read Works
Read Works: Transcontinental Railroads: Compressing Time and Space
[Free Registration/Login Required] Abridged from the full text located at the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, this passage provides information about the development of the transcontinental railroad. Paired texts, a text...
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.
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: Social Studies: Grade 4: The Transcontinental Railroad
This sample task contains a set of primary and authentic source documents about the Transcontinental Railroad and the migration of settlers to the West.
Success Link
Success Link: Transcontinental Railroad
A culminating lesson plan after the study of building the first transcontinental railroad. Uses as its text Stephen Krensky's book, "The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps."
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.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Transcontinental Railroad
Details about the world's First Transcontinental Railroad that was built between 1863 and 1869 to join the Atlantic coast with the Pacific coast.
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)
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.
Curated OER
Bureau of Land Management: Steel Rails and Iron Horses
Read about the building of the first transcontinental railroad and other railroads that came after. Find out how the checkerboard land ownership system affected the railroads. Includes lots of detailed lesson activities as well as a poster.
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Hazardous Business: The Railroads Come to Texas: Railroad Regulation
Read about regulations that kept the early Texas railroad system safe, and check out an "Inspection report for the Houston & Great Northern, 1871." Also, learn how the Civil War affected the railroad and how it was rebuilt following...
Ducksters
Ducksters: History: First Transcontinental Railroad for Kids
Kids learn about the First Transcontinental Railroad. Fun facts about the route, the Union Pacific, and the Pacific Railroad Act are on this site.
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Central Pacific Railroad History Museum: Transcontinental Railroad History
A brief discussion of the concept of a transcontinental railroad with hyperlinks to other articles on this large website.
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr Photographic History Museum: Builders of the Central Pacific Railroad
This chapter from "The First Transcontinental Railroad" by John Debo Galloway contains biographies of the important men who conceived of the railroad, found funds for the line, and engineered the construction.
University of Nebraska
U of Nebraska: Railroads and Making of Modern America: Railroad Work and Workers
Primary source materials related to employment by the railroads in the 1800s. Content includes letters, an employee database, blacklists that were shared between companies, payrolls, images, and more.
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum: Building of the Iron Road
From an article by B.P. Avery printed in the May, 1869, issue of "Overland Monthly" is this description of the building of the transcontinental railroad including information about the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific...
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr: Completion of the Pacific Railroad
From Chapter 105 of R. M. Devens' 1878 book, "Our First Century" is this description of the building of the transcontinental railroad and the ceremony of driving the final spike.
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr Photographic History Museum: Utah's Role in the Pacific Railroad
A chapter from John J. Stewart's "The Iron Trail to the Golden Spike" about Utah and the transcontinental railroad.
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr Photographic History Museum: Locating the Central Pacific Railroad
From a book "The First Transcontinental Railroad" by John Debo Galloway, a civil engineer, comes this comprehensive description of the topography of the route of the Central Pacific Railroad.