A Vision Across America

Until the late 1850's, stagecoaches, dusty trails, wagon trains - even clipper ships around Cape Horn - were all ties between the East Coast and the West Coast.  By that time, however, everyone knew that what was needed was a transcontinental railroad to link with the growing railroads in the East.

Dr. Hartwell Carver of Rochester, New York was probably the first railroad man with a vision.  In 1832, two years after the first steam locomotive completed its very first trial run, Carver was already proposing a transcontinental line.  At that time, the United States had only 100 miles of track.  People thought his idea that of a madman, particularly his talk of dining cars and sleeping cars!

By the 1840's Dr. Carver wasn't so mad after all.  California and Oregon weren't even US territories yet, but Carver's idea was gaining both monetary backing and respectability.

Asa Whitney, a wealthy New York merchant, proposed that the sale of government lands of 60 acres be used to build the railroad across America, from Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Columbia River - 2000 miles total.  Whitney's plan was he would buy the land, almost 78 million acres at 10 cents an acre, then sell it piecemeal to settlers.  This way he would personally keep the railroad in business.  By the time it reached Oregon, the country would be filled with settlers providing the railroad with passengers and freight.

Whitney's idea caught on and was endorsed by 16 state legislatures.  Congress, however, was not enthused.  They didn't like Whitney and they didn't like his ignorance of the enormous engineering challenges this would cause.  But that was not their real problem...that would be politics.

Next time...Mine, not Yours
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Today in Pioneer History: "On March 29, 1806 Congress authorizes surveying to begin for the construction of the Cumberland Road, which sped the way for thousands of Americans heading west.