Three Primary Sources
This Document, The Pacific Railway Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 1, 1862. This act provided Federal government support, Federal subsidies in land and loans, for the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, which was completed on May 10, 1869.
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This Picture, entitled Imperial View "Laying of Last Rail", Taken by Andrew Joseph Russell, was featured in the 1869 New York Times reports of the Completion of the Pacific Railroad on May 10th and May 11th, and the Salt Lake Daily Telegraph report on May 11th. It is a picture of the area where they laid the last rail, and celebrated. It was where Leland Stanford drove in the Golden Spike, to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869.
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This cartoon from the May 29, 1869 issue of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper celebrates the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad linking the eastern and western halves of the United States, but its caption also hints at the hope for a deeper reconciliation. For a country just beginning to heal from the division of the Civil War, the railroad offered a symbol of renewed hopes for national unity.
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By River Murphy Julian Charter School 1/9/15