Western Trails Project - Railroads and Immigration Online Exibit
As settlement expanded into Kansas Territory, railroad companies
began gathering support from communities and the territorial
legislature to begin construction. On July 1, 1862, President
Lincoln gave his approval to the Pacific Railroad bill, which
provided federal aid for a transcontinental railroad. The Union
Pacific Railway, Eastern Division, which began construction in
1863, was the first railroad to connect the Missouri River with
the state’s western border. In 1869 the Union Pacific, Eastern
Division became the Kansas Pacific and later it became a part of
the vast Union Pacific system. During the construction of the
Union Pacific, Eastern Division, in 1867, Alexander Gardner was
hired to document the building of the railroad across Kansas.
The Gardner collection consists of 155 stereographs showing
towns, wildlife, construction scenes and the landscape along the
route. The series of photographs is titled the Across the
Continent on the Un