experience financial difficulties because it did not receive federal cash loans and because its construction began before there was sufficient commercial traffic to make the company turn a profit.7 The Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and the Northern Pacific were all land-grant roads; that is, they were subsidized with lands from the public. Each railroad was to receive a 200-foot-wide right-of-way and sections of public lands to help finance construction. The Northern Pacifics charter originally provided ten alternate sections per mile in states through which it passed and 20 sections per mile in territories. If sufficient lands were not available within this grant, other sections could be selected as in-lieu from a secondary zone which reached back from the tracks another 20 miles.8 These land grants contributed greatly to commercial development and growth of towns along the track routes. A fourth railroad was the Southern Pacific, which was routed from New Orleans to Los Angeles. The Great Northern Railway was the fifth transcontinental line. The Great Northern, along with the Northern Pacific, had the greatest impact on developing the northwest. However, unlike the Northern Pacific, it was not a land-grand railroad. It did not obtain federal loans to help in its construction as did the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads.9 The Northern Pacific received generous land grants but did not receive any government loans in the building of its railroads. After several financial delays, the directors were able to begin with the aid given by Jay Cooke, a monetary genius of his day. Supplemented by bond sales, Cooke took over the financing of the Northern Pacific. Construction started in the east from Lake Superior and from the west at Kalama on the Columbia River. However, the construction came to a screeching halt in 1873 with the failure of Cookes company. At that point in time, the United States was entering a deep ...
