Fletcher W. Hewes & Henry Gannett, Government Land Grants in Aid of Transportation (1883)

Description coming soon. The Pacific Railway Act, passed in 1862, allowed for the construction of a transcontinental railroad in the United States. Just seven years later, in 1869, the first transcontinental railroad had been completed in its entirety, and by the year 1900, a total of four railroads would connect the West and East United States by railway. This map, published in the Scribner's Statistical Atlas of the United States, Showing by Graphic Methods Their Present Condition and Their Political, Social and Industrial Development, by Fletcher W. Hewes and Henry Gannett, shows the land grants given by the government to railroad construction companies to create railways across the United States. The map shows "positive grants" of land that were given to companies, but some of the land within those area were exempted because of previous agreements and, therefore, "lost to the grant." Consequently, railroad construction companies were also given "indemnity grants" that extended beyond the positive grant lands to make up for the lost land. In addition to the main map of the display, there are data visualizations showing railway mileage per state in 1880; railway mileage in the United States over time; railway mileage throughout the world in 1880; railroad density per state in 1880; and iron and steel bar production, imports, and home consumption in 1880. Taken together, the display demonstrates the rapid growth of railroads throughout the 1800s and the impact they had on the country and the world.