As the contest proceeded, public interest increased and the entire country watched to see which company would win the big government subsidies through the mountains.
In the decade before the Civil War various north and south lines of railway were projected and some of these were assisted by grants of land from the Federal Government
Great men are usually the products of their times and one of the men developed by these times takes rank with the greatest railroad leaders in history.
The remarkable character of this achievement is evident in view of the fact that in the period from 1893 to 1898 more than sixty-five per cent of all the railroad mileage in the United States went into the hands of receivers.
In 1862, when the charter was granted by the United States Government for the construction of a railroad from Omaha to the Pacific coast, the only States west of the Mississippi Valley in which any railroad construction of importance existed were Iowa and Missouri.