Choosing a route for the Pacific Railroad

"How Abraham Lincoln Helped Shape Modern U.S. Economy" by Marc Levinson, © Bloomberg, July 6, 2012. (Article)

"... The Pacific Railway Act, adopted after the Southerners walked out, specified a route through northern Kansas or the southern part of Nebraska Territory, leaving it to Lincoln to choose the Missouri River terminus. He could have directed the railroad southeast to Atchison or Leavenworth or Kansas City. All of those routes would have funneled the California trade to St. Louis. Instead, Lincoln chose Omaha, where, via a ferry across the Missouri, there was a rail connection over the Mississippi River bridge at Rock Island direct to Chicago. The rest, as they say, is history. Chicago would become the distribution center for half a continent ... " [More]

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