Westward Expansion

Building Railroads
By Travis

The pioneers and the Chinese immigrants built railroads during their time. "John Chinaman" was what they called the workers. The Iron Horse was a bridge built by Henry Farnam in 1855. The Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad were two of them.

"John Chinaman"

A lot of Chinese people worked on the railroads. All of the people that worked on the railroads were called "John Chinaman". They were called that because they were all mostly Chinese. They were also called that so they don't have to remember all their names. They did not say that to be nice at all. They didn't care about their feelings or anything, they said it to be hurtful and mean. They would work all day, day after day after day, with barely any breaks.

The Iron Horse

In 1855, Henry Farnam built a railroad bridge across the Mississippi From Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa. It was a major step in transcontinental transportation because a lot of people used it and it was easy to use. During the next 50 years, over 260,000 miles of track would be laid down. That would be enough to circle the world 10 times! The Iron Horse was very useful in frontier life because a lot of people used it, liked it and there was a lot of room to cross the country.

Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad

The Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad were very important railroads in frontier life for pioneers. In 1862, Congress authorized the building of transcontinental railroad by 2 companies. The CPR started in California and went east. The Union Pacific Railroad started in Nebraska and went west. Each company raced to build the most track. Nobody won!

Having railroads in frontier life for the pioneers was so much easier because then instead of walking everywhere, you could just ride the trains on the railroads.

Image courtesy of http://publications.newberry.org/frontiertoheartland/archive/fullsize/ nl010028_eb813c3ceb.jpg

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