The Transcontinental Railroad

The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific drive their tracks toward each other: one westward across the plains, the other eastward through the Sierra Nevada, where the bulk of the work is done by Chinese labourers. In May 1869 the rails are joined at Promontory, Utah. The journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which once took months, now lasts about a week; settlers and cattle pour west, and in the east grain grows cheaper. For the peoples of the prairies the road means the slaughter of the buffalo and the loss of their ranges.