Transcontinental Railroad Transcript
Page 1 Transcontinental Railroad Transcript Narrator: The first Transcontinental Railroad has been called the engineering marvel of the 19th century and a flat-out swindle; it opened new economies in the American West, while consuming vast quantities of its natural resources; it birthed one way of life on the Great Plains and destroyed another. In making the road, a young nation would display its capacity for boldness, ingenuity, and industry. It would also reveal its capacity for greed, graft, and mindless violence. New heroes of business and industry -- such as hardware dealer Collis P. Huntington and construction boss Jack Casement -- would make names for themselves. As would the engaging but rapacious scoundrel, Thomas C. Durant. Phil Roberts, Historian: These were bigger than life kinds of adventures that were going on out West. Here was, in essence, the railroad representing civilization moving into the wilderness. Fred Gamst, Anthropologist: It was just the feat that boggled the imagination -- that from Omaha and the Missouri River, they could build all the way to Sacramento and the Sacramento River with nothing in between these two early settlements. Wendell Huffman, Historian: The Transcontinental Railroad was the technological manifestation of Manifest Destiny. This was how we were going to make this all one country. Narrator: Even before construction began, the Transcontinental Railroad had precious freight to bear: the hopes and dreams of an entire nation. It hauled the promise of new wealth to the filthy rich, the landless poor, and everybody in between. As the road was built, Huntington, Page 2 Casement, and Durant would be joined by Congressmen, engineers, prostitutes, laborers, and Main Street merchants in a desperate race for the loot.
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