. Bell telephone magazine . e width ofthe United States, the railroad doesnot appear in the history of transcon-tinental communication until rela-tively late. Indeed, as has beenpointed out, the coast-to-coast tele-graph line had already become an ac-complished fact before the first rail-road linked the Atlantic and Pacificseaboards of the United States. Letus, however, depart from a strictlychronological treatment of our sub-ject and, before discussing the tele-graph and other forms of electricalcommunication, briefly review the his-tory of the railroad and the airplaneas instrumentalities of
. Bell telephone magazine . e width ofthe United States, the railroad doesnot appear in the history of transcon-tinental communication until rela-tively late. Indeed, as has beenpointed out, the coast-to-coast tele-graph line had already become an ac-complished fact before the first rail-road linked the Atlantic and Pacificseaboards of the United States. Letus, however, depart from a strictlychronological treatment of our sub-ject and, before discussing the tele-graph and other forms of electricalcommunication, briefly review the his-tory of the railroad and the airplaneas instrumentalities of transconti-nental communication. The idea of building a railway tothe Pacific was almost as old as therailway itself, as an American institu-tion. In 1832, when the nations firstlocomotives were still a novelty, aweekly paper published at Ann Arbor,Michigan, had proposed it. Threeyears later, Samuel Parker gave im-petus to the movement when he ar-gued for the practicability of such a I f 940 The Conquest of a Continent 293. BUILDING THE UNION PACIFIC Work on the last mile of the pioneer transcontinental railroad saw the mingling of Euro-pean with Asiatic laborers, according to the caption of this contemporary drawing from Harpers Weekly road, basing his statements on per-sonal observations made during anoverland trip from Buffalo, NewYork, to the Oregon country. Some Pioneer Railroad Projects lEN years later, Asa Whitney, aNew York merchant who had spenttwo years in China between 1842 and1844, came forward with the mostconcrete of proposals which up to thattime had been offered. A part ofWhitneys project was a scheme(which, to say the least, was ingen-ious) by which he proposed that theroad be built under government sanc-tion, but at no cost to the public treas- ury. Although this proposal is onlyindirectly related to the actual build-ing of a transcontinental road, it de-serves more than passing mention. Whitney estimated the cost of con-struction at about $65,000,000—acost
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