Lincoln envisioned that his support of the engineering of the transcontinental railroad would finally connect the areas that had been bought by Thomas Jefferson in the Louisiana Purchase, and the areas acquired from Mexico in the 1840s (from Colorado to California) to the rest of America. .
Since the country had a continuous and rapid population growth during the nineteenth century, there was no doubt that there was a dire need for transportation and, of course, there were many more mouths to feed. .
With the continuous growth of the industrial cities in the East, more people were not able to grow their own food any more. There was a great need for meat and fresh food. The westward expansion of railroads in general meant manufactured goods moved west and cattle and farm produce moved east. This was very important because it helped improve the general health and diet of America. And people gradually started to live longer.
With all of the new territories and states across the West, many people were as inspired to move by the dream of new land and new "homesteads," as they were by the lure of gold and silver. The promise of the American West was, for many, as great as the original founding of America. It was all about opportunity. The only problem was how to get there. The Mormons were among the first to realize the West was a "promised land." As historian Walter Nugent points out in his book, Into the West, when Brigham Young said, "This is the Place!" in Utah in the 1840s, he was declaring that his people would use their ingenuity to make the desert bloom. Later, in the 1860s, Young became a staunch supporter of the transcontinental railroad to try and help this vision along. .
After the fever of the discovery of gold in California had finally lessened, many people who sought a new life found it in the fertile farmland of the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the Pacific Northwest.
