In 1857, Abraham Lincoln was the lawyer in a case for the Rock Island Bridge Company. The company had built one of the first railroad bridges across the Mississippi River. When a ship crashed into the bridge, the ship owner sued the company, claiming that the bridge obstructed free navigation of the river. The case was dismissed after the jury was deadlocked, but during it, Lincoln made an argument for the national support of “rail travel from East to West.”
The nation needed a reliable method to connect its two coasts. The addition of the Oregon Territory in 1846 and the Mexican Cession in 1848 had given the United States control of the West Coast. In the decade that followed, discoveries of gold in California and silver in Nevada attracted large numbers of miners and settlers to the West.
Lincoln had grown up on the frontier, and he had traveled as a lawyer—by horseback—in the Midwest. He knew how difficult it was to get around. He believed that a transcontinental railroad would provide that much-needed physical link, but it raised other questions: What route should it follow? Where should the eastern terminus be? Could private companies manage such a massive undertaking? And what role, if any, should the federal government play?
After winning election as president in 1860, Lincoln took the first step to provide answers to some of those questions. He signed the Pacific Railway Act on July 1, 1862. It established the federal government’s support for a transcontinental railroad along a north-central route close to the 42nd parallel. The act called for building a telegraph line parallel to the railroad line. The government reserved the right to use both lines for national purposes, such as to deliver news, to carry mail, and to transport the military. It invested the president with the authority to determine where the eastern leg would begin. Lincoln named Council Bluffs, Iowa, but construction began across the Missouri River in Omaha, Nebraska. Lincoln also decided that the railroad’s standard gauge, or width between the two rails, would be four feet eight and a half inches.
This story is from the February 2017 edition of Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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This story is from the February 2017 edition of Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Eye in the Sky
An interview with Joe Piotrowski
Airborne Animals
Humans have taken to the skies in balloons, gliders, and airplanes-but we're not alone among the clouds. Animals of all sorts have evolved to harness wind power.
TAKING OFF
The Wright brothers expected airplanes to “take off,” but even they might be amazed at the way the airline industry has become big business. In the past, it was expensive to send something by plane.
GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRY
After their historic flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright returned to Dayton, Ohio. They spent the next few years making adjustments and building additional versions of their powered aircraft in their bicycle shop.
WHY KITTY HAWK?
The Wright brothers searched carefully for the best place to test their gliders and flying machines. Their main concern was for good, steady winds. But they also hoped to find a remote location to allow them to perform tests away from the public eye.
Two Brothers From Ohio
Most people do not realize that the Wright brothers—Wilbur, born in 1867, and Orville, born in 1871—performed various scientific experiments before inventing their aircraft. For as long as anyone in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, could remember, the Wright boys had worked on mechanical projects.
A Helping Hand
May 6, 1896. A group of people who had gathered beside the Potomac River, just south of the U.S. capital, grew quiet. Then, it erupted in cheers as a small, unmanned aircraft took to the skies and flew for more than half a mile. The flight came seven years before the Wright brothers’ first manned, powered flight. The inventor of the aircraft was Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley.
THE IDEA MEN
People dreamed of flying thousands of years before the Wright brothers found success near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. These dreamers, such as Leonardo da Vinci, studied birds flying and imagined how humans might do the same—if only they had wings. Other men developed a more hands-on approach to the topic. Early inventors made wings of cloth, glue, and feathers and tied these creations to their arms in an attempt to imitate nature.
Da Vinci's 4 Designs
Have you ever wondered how a bird flies? Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) did. He thought that understanding how a bird flies would provide the key to human flight. So, what did da Vinci learn from birds?
Silken Wings
Seven hundred years before the Wright brothers began experimenting with human flight, the Chinese had already mastered its secrets—with kites.
