Alaskan Highway: Army's Greatest Engineering Achievements

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 Union Pacific had the twin advantages of comparatively flat land and a continuous supply line back to the factories of the East coast. The Central Pacific, however, had to fetch most of its materials, except timber, by sea, twelve thousand miles around the tip of South America. The conclusion of the seven-year race for railroad supremacy resulted in a meeting point at Promontory Point, Utah. The Central Pacific had laid 690 miles (1110 km) of track, starting in Sacramento, California, and continuing through California (Newcastle and Truckee), Nevada (Reno, Wadsworth, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, Elko, Humboldt-Wells), and connecting with the Union Pacific line at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory (Gordon 302). The Union Pacific had laid 1,087 miles (1,749 km) of track, starting in Omaha, Nebraska, and continuing through Nebraska (Elkhorn, Grand Island, North Platte, Ogallala), Julesburg in the Colorado Territory, Sidney, Nebraska, the Wyoming Territory (Cheyenne, Laramie, Green River, Evanston), the Utah Territory (Ogden, Brigham City, Corinne), and

The Canadian Pacific Railway required a great amount of effort to construct. As a solution to this, the Canadian government brought Chinese men to work for them in British Columbia

When the Union Pacific Railroad starts building, it is in 1862, in the middle of the Civil War. There was a lack of labor since most people went to fight. Because of the lack of workers, during the whole Civil War, only forty miles of track were laid from Omaha by the Union Pacific. However, when the Civil War ended in 1865, the construction went much faster. The U.P. employed Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans to build the railroad. The workers laid 1,087 miles of track between Omaha, NE and Utah.

The Ford Wyoming Drive-In (Now known as the Ford Drive-In) is located at 10400 Ford Rd in Dearborn, Michigan with the cross streets at Ford Road and Wyoming. Interstate I-94 is just nearby. The city of Dearborn grew rapidly in the nineteenth century. The families of Dumais, Drouillard, and Cissne began the formulation of the city. The name of the city came from Lewis Cass, the governor of the Michigan Territory at the time. He named it from his friend Major General Henry Dearborn. In 1825 much construction took place in the city as The Detroit Arsenal moved out the city for safety concerns onto Chicago Rd which is now Michigan Avenue. The arsenal was used as a supply depot for the army. By 1893 Dearborn had

“Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska” LOC. 4 August 2010. Web 16 Sept. 2010. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Alaska.html

Before the Civil War there were things that the North and the South needed to use to move things around the place. There are two things that were most important. The train that was the most important was the R.R locomotive and the man that made that was Richard Trevithick. They moved the steal and other things on the rail and the R.R was used in the North more than the South. They also used boats. Since they did not have steam boats, they used row boats. The guy that made the steam boats was John Fitch. They used the steam boats to carry cotton up and down the rivers. They used trains and steam boats to move cotton and steal during the

In 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal Highway Act. Created all US highways and interstates.

The transcontinental railroad is accepted as one of the greatest accomplishments during the 19th century. “In a petition submitted to the U.S. Congress on Jan. 29, 1845, New York merchant Asa Whitney proposed one of the most audacious ventures in American history: the construction of a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean, spanning two-thirds of the North American continent. In bold and stirring words, describing how such a rail network would revolutionize “the entire commerce of the world,” Whitney urged the federal government to underwrite the ambitious project.” (Visions of Empire). The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 was authorized and passed, the railroad companies began to build a transcontinental railroad. Connecting over 2,000 miles of land, crossing deserts and mountains. It’s an amazing achievement since it lowered the traveling time to just a few days compared to the months.

Loud, crowded, and boring is what I would call an interstate, would you personally enjoy driving on an interstate or a highway? Well most people take the interstate because it's much faster, but where is the fun in that? To me, an interstate are not faster but they are much more enjoyable. Also, the author of the article "The Best Highway of America is on the Blue Highways" states his opinion on how route 66 represents America and his evidence is quite effective.

They were facing the problem of finding labor. Generally, many workers would join the company to get free journey to California, and then they leave the company in order to try their luck finding gold. Charles Crocker, who was one of the head of the company, hired first 50 Chinese workers to see their efficiency. Chinese immigrants came to California of work. After he realized that his decision of hiring Chinese workers worked out, he hired more Chinese workers. On the other hand, the UP was facing problem of Native Americans. Many Native American tribes like Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne were threatened by these rail tracks because they saw this rail track as a violation of their treaties. Therefore, the UP had face many attacks on its worker by Native

The Transcontinental Railroad was the largest project the United States had ever seen. Due to lack of technology, the enormous size of the project, and the environmental conditions, the railroad seemed to be an impossible task.  This construction project posed a huge challenge to those working on it. The railroad’s route would span nearly seven hundred

The marker would be placed in multiple places along the Overseas Highway in the state parks that border the Overseas Highway.

The transcontinental railroad was built by two major companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. The Central Pacific company worked eastbound. They faced the treacherous terrain of the Rocky Mountains, landslides, and winter snowdrifts. Central Pacific would hire Chinese immigrants. These Chinese immigrants, “... made up 85 percent of the Central Pacific workforce.” (Holt McDougal,

“The project was halted in 1963: some fifty miles of road was eventually built, but no bridges were ever erected over the many rivers it transected, and the route was shortly rendered impassable by thawing permafrost and seasonal floods. Yutan hauled two of the buses back to the highway. The third bus was left about halfway out the trail to serve as a backcountry shelter for hunters and trappers” (Krakauer 10).