What US President signed the Railroad Act of 1862?

Answer 1

Abraham Lichon

MORE INFO:

Talk of a transcontinental railroad started in 1830, shortly after railroads began large scale operation in the United States and

English-speaking settlers began settling in Mexican controlled California. Much of the early debate was not so much over whether

it would be built, but what route it should follow: a "central" route, via the Platte River in Nebraska and the South Pass in Wyoming,

or a southern route, avoiding the Rockies by going through Texas to Los Angeles. (A "northern" route explored by Lewis and Clark

would have gone through northern Montana to Oregon and was considered impractical because of snow.)
The most prominent champion of the central route railroad at this time was Asa Whitney. Whitney envisioned a route from Chicago

to northern California, paid for by the sale of land to settlers along the route.
In June 1845 Whitney led a team along the central route to assess its capabilities. Whitney travelled widely to solicit support from

businessmen and politicians, printed maps and pamphlets, and submitted several proposals to Congress, all at his own expense.

Legislation to begin construction of the Pacific Railroad via the central route was introduced in Congress but not acted on.
A railroad linking America's east and west coasts had been a dream
since the steam locomotive made its first appearance in the early 1830
The need for such a link was wanted by the discovery of gold in california
in 1848. The reason for this railroad was to bring people together.Many of the workers
were Irish as I am and some were Chinesse.Chinese employees received wages
of 27-30 dollars minus the price of food and board;As we the Irish were paid
much better with 35 dollars a month and board was provided.The railroad also
required the efforts of hundreds of blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, masons,
teamsters, telegraphers, and cooks.
We built the railroad between the times of 1863 and 1869.We laid 690
miles of track!It was taking us quite a while to build.We thought i'd never get built.
each railroad was subsized $16,000 per mile ($9,940/km) built over an easy grade,
$32,000 per mile ($19,880/km) in the high plains, and $48,000 per mile ($29,830/km)
in the mountains. The terms encouraged the companies to construct excess miles of track,
direct the line toward property owned by themselves, and in many other ways exploit the system.
From 1861 until July, a group led by Theodore Judah,and Daniel Strong, a local miner, survived the
selected route for the railroad over the Sierra Nevada, through Clipper Gap, Emigrant Gap, Donner Pass,
and south to Truckee.Collis Huntington, a hardware merchant, heard Theodore Judah lecture on the
Transcontinential Railroad.The House of Representatives on May 6, 1862, and the Senate on June 20 finally
approved it.On January 8, 1863 Governor Leland Stanford officially broke ground in Sacramento,
California, to begin the building of the Central Pacific Railroad. The Central Pacific made great progress
along the Sacramento Valley.It was here on May 10, 1869 that Governor Stanford drove the Golden Spike
or the Last Spike), that symbolized the completion of The Transcontinental Railroad!
The American rail network was not yet connected to the Atlantic or the Pacific. What was the
Transcontinental Railroad
merely connected Omaha and Sacramento. In November 1869 the Sacramento line was extended to San
Francisco Bay at Oakland. At first, trains had to be ferried across the Missouri River to complete a
transcontinental journey. The Hannibal Bridge in Kansas City was the first bridge to cross the Missouri, it
was completed in July, 1869. In August 1870 the Kansas Pacific connected to the Denver
Pacific line at Strasburg, Colorado and the first true Atlantic to Pacific railroad was completed. Council Bluffs
was directly connected to the East Coast rail network upon completion of the Union Pacific Missouri River
Bridge in 1872.
On June 4, 1876 an express train named the Transcontinental Express arrived in San Francisco via the
Transcontinental Railroad only.The Railroad was a sucess!
aberham lincon

Answer 2

President Abraham Lincoln