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Asa Whitney Presented to congress a plan for a rail road that spanned the West
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Acquisition of western territories form Mexico
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Settlement of Oregon Boundary
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Discovery of gold
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Congress appropriated funds to survey various proposed routes
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Senetor Stephan Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act
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Enacted during the Civil War by a Republican controlled congress
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The Union Pacific RailRoad started building at Omaha, Nebraska while the Central Pacific Began at Sacramento , California
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Each company building railroads were granted 10 alternate sections per mile on both side of the rail road
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The amount of land granted doubled and a 30-year loan from the government wa given for each mile of track built
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Both sides met at Promontory Summit, Utah. A golden spike joined the two lines
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Three more lines were completed: Northern Pacific RailRoad-Lake Superior to Portland, Oregon; Santa Fe-Atchison, Kansas to Los Angeles; Southern Pacific- Los Angeles to New Orleans.
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The Great Northern was completed