How did the railroad companies get the land to build the railroads?
Between 1850 and 1872 extensive cessions of public lands were made to states and to railroad companies to promote railroad construction. [18] Usually the companies received from the federal government, in twenty- or fifty-mile strips, alternate sections of public land for each mile of track that was built.
How did companies get the money to build the railroad?
Receiving millions of acres of public lands from Congress, the railroads were assured land on which to lay the tracks and land to sell, the proceeds of which helped companies finance the construction of their railroads.
How much did it cost to build the railroads?
Later, much of the land was sold by the railroad companies at an average price of $2.81 per acre. (Proximity to the rails increased the value of the land.) These sales offset a portion of the construction costs, which have been estimated at approximately $168 million.
Why did the government give the railroads land?
Those lines become the land grant boundaries. Under the 1862 law, the Federal government gave railroads all odd-numbered sections within the boundaries. For the land grant system to work as planned, the government hoped railroads would sell their lands to help pay for the construction costs of laying rail lines.
When was the first railroad land grant made?
Small land grants were also offered in Ohio and Wisconsin in the late 1850s. The earliest land grant bonds in the database date from 1859. While those grants were helpful to the companies involved, they were small in scope, and very much unlike like the millions of acres of land given away for building transcontinental railroads.
When did the United States start building railroads?
It’s fast, simple, and FREE! This map from the 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States reveals the United States land grants available for the construction of railroads and wagon roads between 1823-1871.