Jim Bridger Biography

It was very clear to many after the war of 1812 that only large-scale resources available to state and federal governments could make a practical difference their transportation. Transportation was very highly risky and very uncomfortable. Immediately after the war of 1812, a political prodigy, John Calhoun, introduced legislation in Congress to finance a national transportation program tying the South and West to the rest of the nation. Congress approved it, but James Madison vetoed the bill stating that the Constitution did not authorize federal spending on such projects. But finally, Calhoun won Madison’s support by convincing the president that a government-funded national road between Cumberland, Maryland, and Wheeling, Virginia, was a military and postal necessity, therefore initial expenditure of $20,000 for the Cumberland Road was constitutional. So the construction began in 1815.

The Transcontinental Continental Railroad aided the settling of the west and closed the last of the remaining frontier, bringing newfound economic growth, such as mining farming and cattle ranching to our burgeoning country. On May 10, 1869, near Promontory Summit, Utah, a boisterous crowd gathered to witness the

Business growth on both sides of the country was expedited by a new form of cheap distribution into profitable, expanding markets. Easy transportation facilitated the concept of business travel and expansion on an unprecedented scale. However, some of the largest impacts of the Transcontinental Railroad can be seen through the cross­country exchange of ideas. Before the railroad existed, the only fast exchange of information was written through the pony express. The Transcontinental Railroad created an outlet of communicating new ideas and information in person. A smooth and swift cross­country exchange of people and ideas not only made America more infrastructurally sophisticated ­­ it acted as a foundation for the Western United States to grow from very little to the political, social, economic, and technological center that it is today.

in the 1800s was the expansion of the west. Since the start of ideas like Manifest Destiny, it has always been a common belief that transportation was the best way to stay connected to the rest of the country. At first roads were used for this job, with one of the most famous being the National Road which connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a total length of 620 miles. After

During the 19th Century, the United States was downright obsessed with expanding westward. They believed it was their God-given right to span the entire continent. With more and more territories being added to the ever-growing roster, they needed a way to get from point A to point B quickly. The solution: The Erie Canal and the Transcontinental Railroad. The result: A huge growth in the U.S.’s economy.

On May 14th, 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark start their three year expedition across the Louisiana Purchase. They started in Camp River Dubois, east of the Mississippi river. They sailed all the way up the Missouri river. When the Great Falls came up, they had to get out of the boat and split up. William Clark and four dozen other men went on the

Jim bridger was born on March 17, 1804, in Richmond, VA.Mountain men hunt beavers and other animals for their valuable fur. The most famous of all the mountain men was Jim Bridger because he started working as a trapper in the Rockies. He spent about 40 years in the mountains. Then he became a scout in the U.S. Army. Jim died on July 17, 1881,in Kansas City,MO.

Jim Bridger, also known as James Bridger or “Old Gabe,” was a tall, muscular, honest, and brave man. Jim was a fur trapper, mountain man, explorer, trader, and had many other jobs. When he was 17, he was called to be a member of a trapping group, organized by William H. Ashley.

Businessmen were eager to expand their horizons and capitalize on new western markets. In 1845, an early proponent of a transcontinental railroad, Asa Whitney, led an exploratory team along the route he envisioned from Chicago to northern California. As a highly successful dry goods merchant and locomotive manufacturer in New Rochelle, New York, Whitney traveled widely to solicit support from other businessmen and politicians. He proposed selling land to settlers along the route to finance construction. Whitney printed maps and pamphlets and submitted several proposals to Congress.

“If any act symbolized the taming of the Northwest frontier, it was the driving of the final spike to complete the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.”1 The first railroad west of the Mississippi River was opened on December 23, 1852. Five miles long, the track ran from St. Louis to Cheltanham, Missouri. Twenty-five years prior, there were no railroads in the United States; twenty-five years later, railroads joined the east and west coasts from New York to San Francisco.2

Transportation began to fuel the American economy during the Market Revolution by adding many different ways to transport goods and to get around the country. These roads were made of mud, which happened to be quite an issue during the different seasons. In the spring,all roads turned to mud, in the summer all roads were dust and in the winter these roads were snow and ice which made it difficult to travel on. The national road was made and was the only road funded by the national government, all of the other roads were funded by private investors. The national road opened up travel through the East and the West, which began to help foster a national community. Canals were starting to expand from not only running North and South, but creating ways to get East and West as well.The farmers began an eight year long project, which was taken over by Irish immigrants and they created the Erie

Mining companies used them to ship raw materials to factories over long distances quickly. Manufactures distributed their finished product by rail to points throughout the country. The rails became highly profitable businesses for their owners. (www.theusaonline.com)

The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most ambitious engineering projects, economic stimulants, and efficient methods of transportation in the early United States. If completed, the United States would be truly be united from east to west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Transcontinental Railroad helped develop new opportunities for many aspects of American life.

The transcontinental railroad was the most influential innovation of the United States, that brought a revolution of how people traveled. One year after the Civil War ended the people of the United States were looking for a way to unite their country back together. This helped mold the United States as to what it has become today. It helped people cross the country and improved how goods were transported. The man that was forming the transcontinental railroad was a merchant named Asa Whitney. He had asked the government for funding to construct one of the greatest innovation of the United States. “Two railroads, the Central Pacific starting in San Francisco and a new railroad, the Union Pacific, starting in Omaha, Nebraska, would build the rail-line.” (ushistory.org). One fear of building the railroad was the danger of the “Great American Desert” because of the lack of resources. The Central Pacific was primarily made by Chinese immigrants. The Union Pacific was primarily made up of Irish immigrants. By spring of 1866 the Central Pacific had only build 68 miles of track from Sacramento, while the Union Pacific going west from Omaha built 200 miles of track in less than a year. Therefore the Union Pacific made millions more. The next three years the railroads would continue to try and make history.

At the peak of expansion in the 1800’s, communication between the east and west was at the forefront of importance. A document from the State of Pennsylvania regarding railways in 1825 remarked that there is extreme “importance and necessity of effecting a communication between the eastern and western divisions of the commonwealth” (Wade, 5). The appearance of the railroads in the early 19th century decreased and nearly diminished the communication gap as it provided a reliable and speedy method of communication. As the railroads became more prominent across the United States, the western states naturally became linked to the Midwestern and eastern states through the Union Pacific Railroad. This railroad running from the east coast to the west coast opened up new doors in trans-continental communication. Businesses between the east and the west were able to communicate more effectively, and thus, trans-continental trade became more defined throughout the United States. The mail services began using railroads as well, which was a large factor in improving communication across the US. Trans-continental communication was broadened simply by the increased number of people traveling across the country. And, even when the railroads seemed an impractical method of transportation, “they might make possible long