# Why didn't the first transcontinental railroad go through the Gadsden Purchase? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2000, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172 "2000-08-13T05:57:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/1 "2000-08-13T05:57:21Z")
The whole point of the U.S. buying the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 was that it offered the easiest railroad route across the continent. And yet when the first transcontinental railroad (Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad) was finally built in the 1860s, it went over some pretty rough country through the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. Even the Northern Pacific Railroad (Minnesota-Seattle) was completed before (or _very_ shortly after) a railroad was finally laid across the Gadsden Purchase as part of the Southern Pacific RR in the early 1880s. If the Gadsden Purchase offered such an attractive route, why was it so long in being developed? I have 2 WAGs [list][li]There wasn’t enough water for the steam locomotives. You’d think they’d have considered that before buying the land.[/li]Hostility toward the South after the Civil War scared away investment. Still, it seems odd they wouldn’t take advantage of the best route. Also, it doesn’t explain why a RR wasn’t built in the 7 years between the purchase and the outbreak of the war. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/2 "2000-08-13T07:06:07Z")
The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) [pit material] _is EVERY friggin treaty with Mexico the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that must be followed by a year so we’ll know which friggin treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo we’re talkin’ about?_ [/pit material) was vague about describing the U.S./Mexican border. President Pierce wanted something a little more substantial that would also insure possession of the Mesilla Valley. This was the _most practicable_ route for a Southern railway connection to the Pacific coast. This didn’t mean the Southern route would get the nod. It just ment the Southern route would come into play as of the options. And yes, the Civil War through a monkey wrench into the Southern route. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2000, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/3 "2000-08-13T07:10:51Z")
The railroad through the Gadsden Purchase area wasn’t completed until 1882. While it may have been less mountainous, it also featured a distinct lack of people along a lot of its route. Building a railroad through a desert presented a whole different set of problems from going over the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. ---
**Author:** ![rmorgan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/958977/32.png) [@rmorgan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rmorgan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/4 "2000-08-14T15:38:33Z")
Treaties aside, I believe that the Civil War was the primary reason for the railroad’s routing. Northern and southern routes had been debated for some time, but Congress could not agree on where to build it. With the secession of the southern states and the resulting loss of representation in Congress it became a relatively simply matter to authorize the northern route, and construction was started during the war. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/5 "2000-08-14T17:49:53Z")
The first transcontinental rail line was the Union Pacific/Central Pacific joint line from Omaha to Sacramento via the Donner Pass (yes, THAT Donner!). There’s at least two reasons for that: 1. Sacramento, and the Bay Area beyond with easy rail and steamboat connections, were the big destinations at that time and for decades thereafter. A route via the Gadsden purchase works for Los Angeles, but L.A. didn’t become an important destination until this century. 2. The Union Pacific was founded by (to quote UP’s own history webpage) “four shrewd Sacramento shopkeepers: Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Leland Stanford. They came to be known as the ‘Big Four’…” [http://www.uprr.com/uprr/ffh/history/hist-ov3.shtml](http://www.uprr.com/uprr/ffh/history/hist-ov3.shtml) Four merchants from Sacramento would probably prefer a train route that directly serves, umm, Sacramento. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/6 "2000-08-14T20:13:11Z")
Keep in mind, as well, that the railroad companies weren’t building track with some high noble purpose to connect one end of the country with the other; they were out to make a profit. Being the ones who actually finished the Trans-Continental Railroad was incidental in comparison. While some towns sprung up around where the railroad went, usually the railroad tried to go where the most people and goods wanted to go. Ergo, through the Rockies was the most likely outcome; for while the Rockies didn’t have many settlers, there were a darn sight more than in the deserts of the Southwest. The actual connection between the two companies- and the creation of a Trans-Continental Railroad- was just two companies realizing that their tracks were close enough that extending and connecting lines was worthwhile. ---
**Author:** ![Mars\_Horizon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mars_horizon/32/2804_2.png) [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/7 "2000-08-14T21:22:01Z")
\ John, Polycarp said elsewhere that you could provide a link to the thread mentioned in your sig. Do you happen to have that handy? \ Sorry all 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2000, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/8 "2000-08-14T22:57:14Z")
There were four proposed routes: 1. the Northern, from the upper Mississippi to the upper Missouri and then over the Oregon Trail to the Columbia 2. the Central, from St Louis up the Kansas and Arkansas rivers over the Rockies to the Great Salt Lake and then to San Francisco 3. the “35th Parallel”, from Memphis up the Arkansas and Canadian rivers acroos the Rockies to Santa Fe and through Apache country to Los Angeles 4. the Southern, from New Orleans up the Red River across Texas up the Gila valley to Yuma and then on to San Diego Congress authorized that the four routes be surveyed. Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of War, was in charge of this effort. As a Southerner, he advocated that the Federal government build the Southern route. He persuaded President Pierce to make the Gadsen Purchase as this made the most efficient route. At this point Stephen Douglas stepped up. As a big time speculator in western as well as Chicago real estate, he advocated the Central route. In order to have a functioning government in the area, he reopened the bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska. To get the southerners to stop their opposition, the bill allowed that Nebraska could determine whether to be slave or free after the territorial legislature was organized. This was implicitly a repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This led to its explicit repeal and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and “Bloody Kansas” and the Civil War. (There were a few other steps, also). As the slavery issued flared up in the new territories, most people forgot about the railroad route, so Stephen Douglas got his way. If the Southern route had been built first, the Civil War might have been delayed and San Diego, rather than Los Angeles, would have been the major Southern California metropolis. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/9 "2000-08-15T01:13:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mars Horizon \* > \*\*\ > > John, > > Polycarp said elsewhere that you could provide a link to the thread mentioned in your sig. Do you happen to have that handy? > > \ > > Sorry all 🙂 \*\* Since it was another thread of mine, I’ll allow it **this time**. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=626297#post626297](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=626297#post626297) ---
**Author:** ![Coconut\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@Coconut\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coconut_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/10 "2000-08-15T01:59:55Z")
\ Speaking of the transcontinental railroad, why is the Omaha minor league baseball team nicknamed the Golden Spikes? If i’m correct, that’s in Utah, not Omaha. \ ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2000, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-first-transcontinental-railroad-go-through-the-gadsden-purchase/29172/11 "2000-08-15T02:11:04Z")
But the Transcontinental Railroad started in Omaha, so it’s important to the city. And what do people remember about the Transcontinental Railroad? The Golden Spike! Also, it’s a play on words.