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it's been awhile, but if my memory is intact..... the railroad act of 1863 gave the union pacific/central pacific something like $40,000 per mile for track laid in the mountains (whether they were real mountains or not), and ownership of alternate square miles going out 20 miles each way from the track, and also the mineral rights on that land. originally the union pacific planned to head for south pass, but the extensive coal deposits on the original route through wyoming and utah proved to be too big a prize to ignore. they needed that coal, and if they did not lay claim to it first then the central pacific was going to get it, and they wanted it badly. so that's why they picked that route. at $40,000. per mile, the union pacific would have zig zagged that railline all the way if they thought they could have gotten away with it. the big money was in the building of the railroad, and not much interest beyond that. the resulting scandal reached deep into congress because all the important and influential owned a piece of the union pacific. construction profits were enormous. the central pacific did something similar, but kept it restricted to "the big four", and when called to account, all their business records caught fire. they got away clean. while dealing with that war, abe lincoln was also attempting to build a nation. while he knew the transcontinental railroad would be subject to a bit of corruption, he figured it needed to happen now, and he was willing to accept this if it would cause the road to be built. getting things done is what made him great. -rr
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