THE INFLUENCE OF LAND POLICIES 123 



Land grants to transcontinental roads were con- 

 fined principally to the Civil War period. The influ- 

 ence of the South had been eliminated from Con- 

 gress, and the interests of the East and West had 

 been drawn more closely together. It became, 

 therefore, relatively easy to secure unusually favor- 

 able grants for railroad construction. The first of 

 these grants was made to the Union Pacific in 1862. 

 The Union and Central Pacific roads were planned 

 to cross the "Great Desert," while the Northern 

 Pacific was to cross the Cordilleras at a lower level 

 and avoid the desert. In 1866 land grants were 

 authorized to the Atlantic and Pacific and the 

 Southern Pacific. 



The land grant made to the Union Pacific was 

 the first made directly to a railroad corporation in- 

 stead of to a state. Most of the area west of 

 Missouri had not been organized into states at this 

 time, and a departure in policy was necessary to en- 

 courage the building of railroads. But the difference 

 was more nominal than real, for the states to which 

 Congress made land grants promptly transferred 

 their grants to the beneficiary corporation. 



The extent of the grants to the sixteen roads of 

 the Middle West and far West was enormous. The 

 policy adopted in 1856 was to donate every alternate 

 section of land within six miles of the road. This 

 amounted to six square miles, or 3,840 acres for each 

 mile of railroad. From time to time this amount was 

 increased. For instance, in the case of the Union 



