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One of the first promoters of the railroad was a man named Asa Whitney. Asa tried hard for countless years to get Congress to pass an act to build the railroad, but failed. Shortly after steam powered railroads were invented in Great Britain and began to be introduced into the United States.
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He Wanted to have a railroad that went from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Then run westward towards the Rocky Mts. It would then cross the range north of the South Pass. It would continue to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. He claimed "It would bring all our immensely wide-spread population together as one vast city; the moral and social effects of which must harmonize all together as one family, with but one interest-the general good of all."
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Thomas Scott a railway owner hires Carnegie for $4 a week.
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Judah wrote "A Practical Plan for Building the Transcontinental Railroad",a pamphlet he published and distributed to generate interest in the railway idea.
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Judah found the Donner Pass (famous for being the location for a group that was trapped during a winter and turning to cannibalism to survive). The railroad could pass through the pass and the problem was solved.
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Judah printed "Confident of the existence of a practical route across the Sierra Nevada Mountains" Because of that he gained the support of people that wanted to give him money.
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Abraham Lincoln signed the act said that there were two main railroad lines. The Central Pacific Railroad would come from California and the Union Pacific Railroad would come from the Midwest. The two railroads would meet somewhere in the middle (to be determined later on).
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The North won the American Civil War.
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In order to help stop the attacks from the natives. The treaties that were made were: The Sioux were to stay north of the Platte River, in return the US promised all of modern day South Dakota as well as most of North Dakota and west of Mississippi River Nebraska. The US promised that the Natives could keep modern day Oklahoma forever.
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The last spike was drove into the ground. Therefor connecting the Pacific and the Union lines together. The Midwest was now connected to the west coast.
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Rockefeller puts faith in his own ambitions and "standardizes" the oil refinery business.
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When Vanderbilt closed the brige to Albany. That caused the rival railroads to start selling their shares. Then Vanderbilt bought all of the shares and became the owner of the largest railway in the country.
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The first anti trust law in american history. The Act prohibits monopolies and trusts.
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J.P. Morgan buys Carnegie Steel for $480 million and turns it into US Steel Corp.
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The Sherman act was used to split up Standard Oil into smaller companies across the US that eventually had to compete with each other.