1 pp 1854
America Transformed: By mid-19th century, with increased oceanic traffic between the East and West Coasts based on the China trade and discovery of gold in California, many Americans wanted to extend the nation’s rail network west of the Mississippi River by constructing a transcontinental route. In 1853, Congress authorized the War Department to conduct reconnaissance surveys in order to determine the best route for a transcontinental railroad. Because of growing sectional rivalries between the North and South in extending chattel slavery into the western territories, there were four east-west Pacific Railroad Surveys, as indicated on this schematic map.
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