USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Under grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines, the federal government offered twenty square miles of land for each mile of track laid in territories and ten square miles of land for each mile of track laid in states.

Detailed explanation-2: -To encourage rapid construction, the government offered each company land along its right-of-way. (About 1-5 miles on either side of the tracks) The railroads sold the land on either side of the tracks to settlers to pay for the cost of building the railroad.

Detailed explanation-3: -Between 1850 and 1870, seven percent of the land in the United States was given to 80 railroads; mostly in the west.

Detailed explanation-4: -Cash poor during the Civil War, the government made land grants to the railroads to insure the construction of a transcontinental railroad, which they then sold at a profit. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act and created opportunity for the 372, 000 families that poured onto the prairies.

Detailed explanation-5: -These were: the Union Pacific, the Central Pacific, the Northern Pacific, the Southern Pacific, and the Santa Fe. They received a total of 130 million acres of land, with the largest single grant (of 44 million acres) going to the Northern Pacific line.