Reconnecting America : P . T . Barnum and the Transcontinental Railroad
the Central Pacific Railroad and guided his company as it started building eastward from Sacramento in 1861 . Dodge was the lead engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad , and at the same time begin building tracks heading westward from Omaha , Nebraska . The two railways finally met eight years later . 16 Although Dodge was not the only engineer to take stock of the west side of the Missouri River for the Transcontinental Railroad , he convinced President Abraham Lincoln that the railway “ should be on the road running almost straight out the forty-second parallel from Omaha , alongside the Platte Valley until it reached the Rocky Mountains and then over the mountains to meet the railroad coming east from California .” Lincoln and Dodge , with help from others , founded and signed off on “ the greatest building project of the nineteenth century .” 17 Dodge later told William T . Sherman that the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad had “ advanced the country 100 years .” 18
The railways ’ workforce had as many as 15,000 on each line , working at an urgent pace on “ the last great building project to be done mostly by hand .” 19 This sense of urgency and tracking of time became dominant elements during the building and completion of the railroad . The government had set up railway work as a race — the company that built more and built quicker got more financial aid , a concept still relevant in modern American economics and democracy . 20 Congress gave out massive public land grants and government bonds on internal improvements like the Transcontinental Railroad , 21 which
Phineas Taylor Barnum , July 5 1810 – April 7 , 1891 , photographed by Matthew Brady . National Portrait Gallery NPG . 97.63
when completed became just as much about technology and industrialization as cultural representation and a conquering of time and space . 22 Railroads operated on strict time schedules , and during this time of railroad expansion , time became so important that popular phrases developed , such as “ time is wasting ,” “ time ’ s up ,” and “ the train is leaving the station .” The railroads are also a main reason that the country was divided into four time zones . 23
The Transcontinental Railroad became the longest stretch of iron ever built . 24 With this cross-county stretch of railway , a person could travel at six-
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