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the transcontinental railroad

Talk of a transcontinental railroad started in 1830, shortly after railroads began large scale operation in the United States and English-speaking settlers began settling in Mexican controlled California. Much of the early debate was not so much over whether it would be built, but what route it should follow: a "central" route, via the Platte River in Nebraska and the South Pass in Wyoming, or a southern route, avoiding the Rockies by going through Texas to Los Angeles. (A "northern" route explored by Lewis and Clark would have gone through northern Montana to Oregon and was considered impractical because of snow.) 