Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/182

 174 RAILROAD mise cars." The railroads of the southern states, with only a few exceptions, were laid to a 5 ft. gauge ; two in Ohio to 5 ft. 4 in. ; several in Maine, Missouri, and Canada to 5 ft. 6 in. ; while the Erie, the Atlantic and Great West- ern, and the Ohio and Mississippi were laid to the 6 ft. or "broad gauge." The last named road changed to the gauge of 4 ft. 9 in. in 1870, the work of moving in both rails hav- ing been completed in a single Sunday with- out the stoppage of trains or the slightest de- rangement of business. Notwithstanding the original absence of system and national con- trol, many important continuous lines have been developed by the consolidation of inde- pendent ones, and the construction of others necessary to connect or extend the various parts of the trunk lines. The first great lines of this character originated in the desire of the great seaboard cities to secure a larger share of the business from the interior and western states. The railroad from Boston to Albany, the New York Central, the Erie, the Penn- sylvania Central with its eastern and western connections, and the Baltimore and Ohio, are the most notable instances illustrating the pe- culiar method by which the great trunk rail- roads have been created. The Atlantic and Great Western, the Toledo, Wabash, and West- ern, the Chicago and Northwestern, the Cleve- land, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis, the Michigan Central, and many others of equal or less extent, grew up in a similar man- ner. The money for carrying out these vast improvements was in general raised by pri- vate subscriptions to the share capital, supple- mented by loans secured by mortgages upon the property created ; in many instances, how- ever, towns, cities, and even states subscribed to the capital stock, or lent their credit to the various companies. In 1848 the Mobile and Ohio railroad, designed to connect Mobile with the mouth of the Ohio river, was pro- jected, and in the winter of 1849-'50 congress passed an act giving to that undertaking about 1,000,000 acres of the public lands lying con- tiguous to the route. This was the first act of the kind, and was soon followed by a grant of 2,595,000 acres to the state of Illinois, which conveyed it to the Illinois Central railroad company, for the purpose of aiding it to con- struct its road from Dunleith on the Missis- sippi river, in the N. W. corner of the state, to Cairo, 455 m., with a branch from Oentra- lia to Chicago, 249 m. By the hypothecation and sale of these lands and the mortgage of its railroad, the company secured the means of completing its lines, and, with the exception of embarrassments during its earlier days and before the country along the road had become sufficiently developed to yield an adequate traf- fic for its support, this has been one of the most successful railroads of the country. The policy of granting public lands to railroad com- panies gave an extraordinary development to railroad enterprise in the northwestern, west- ern, and southern states, which, aided by their great fertility and other natural resources, soon surpassed the older states in the length and number of their lines. Pacific Railroads. The discovery of gold in California and the rapid increase of wealth and population in the ter- ritory west of the Rocky mountains, together with the desire of the older states to establish closer connections during the civil war with those outlying communities, caused congress in 1862 to authorize the construction of a rail- road to the Pacific ocean, with various branches to connect it with rival towns on the Missouri river. This project was first brought into pub- lic notice by Mr. Asa Whitney, who from 1846 to 1850 advocated it in addresses to state legis- latures and before public meetings, and memo- rialized congress on the subject. The idea was strongly advocated by Senator Breese of Illi- nois and by many other men of distinction both in and out of congress ; but the plan first took tangible shape in the bill introduced by Senator Benton of Missouri, Feb. 7, 1849. In March, 1853, an act was passed providing for surveys by the corps of topographical engineers of the various routes, and particularly of a northern, southern, and middle one, with the view of de- termining which offered the greatest advan- tages for the construction of the railroad. These surveys resulted in the decision that the en- terprise could be carried through upon either route which might be adopted ; but owing to dissensions and rivalry between the northern, and southern states, nothing further was done by congress till the war had removed this ob- stacle. Acts of congress were passed in July, 1862, and in July, 1864, providing for a sub- sidy in United States 6 per cent, gold bonds at the rate of $16,000 per mile of railroad from the Missouri river to the base of the Rocky mountains, $48,000 per mile for a distance of 300 m. through the mountains, $32,000 per mile for that portion between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains, and $16,000 per mile for that west of the latter mountains. In addition to this subsidy, the same acts of con- gress gave to the railroad companies under- taking this great work 20 sections (12,800 acres) of land for each mile of railroad built, or about 25,000,000 acres in all. The first act of con- gress provided that the government subsidy of bonds should constitute a first lien upon the road and its appurtenances, but it was found that the money arising from the subsidy would not secure the completion of the work. Con- gress therefore released the first lien of the government, and empowered the railroad com- panies to issue their own bonds or debentures at the same rate per mile, and to secure their payment by a first mortgage upon their prop- erty. The railroad was built from the Cali- fornia end eastward by the Central Pacific railroad company, and from the Missouri river westward to the common meeting point at Ogden by the Union Pacific company. Work waa commenced in 1863, but it was not till