The Pacific Railroad Surveys | (fl. 1853 - 1855) The Pacific
Railroad Surveys (1853 - 1855) were established in 1853 with the
goal of identifying the best possible routes for a
transcontinental railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific.
The need for transcontinental railroad made itself evident
shortly after the California Gold rush when the westward
expansion was at its heights. The federal government, acting
under the Sectary of War, Jefferson Davis (of Civil War fame),
initiated a series of expeditions of the western territories.
These expeditions included surveyors, cartographers, artists,
zoologists, botanists and geographers. The resultant work, a 12
volume compendium entitled Reports of Explorations and Surveys,
to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a
railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean
eventually led to the constructions of several different
transcontinental railroads. Click here for a list of rare maps
from the Pacific Railroad Surveys. Rare maps by The Pa