Pacific Railway Acts
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The Pacific Railway Acts were passed by the United States Congress in 1862 and 1864.
The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 gave land grants in the Western United States to the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad (later the Southern Pacific Railroad) to construct a transcontinental railroad. The act granted 10 square miles (26 km²) of public land on each side of the tracks, every other section (square mile), for every mile laid; except where railroads ran through cities and crossed rivers.
From 1850-1871, the railroads received more than 175 million acres (708,000 km²) of public land-an area more than one tenth of the whole United States and larger than Texas.
Railroad expansion provided new avenues of migration into the American interior. The railroads sold portions of their land to arriving settlers at a handsome profit. Lands closest to the tracks drew the highest prices, because farmers and ranchers wanted to locate near railway stations.