Rail lines have played a crucial role in the development of America. After the Civil War, rail lines accepted huge gifts of land to subsidize railroad construction and operations across the American Plains and Canadian Prairies. Leaders in both countries contended (and rightly so) that whoever controlled access across this region would control the Pacific Coast.

The rail lines across middle America differed from rail lines in the East. These lines fostered towns and communities. Between 1850 and 1871, railroad companies were given an estimated 185 million acres of land from individuals and from governments. The Federal Government offered 20 square miles of land for each mile of track laid in territories and 10 miles of land for each mile laid in states. These land grants were in alternate sections with the government holding every other section. 

Much has been argued about the this land-granting method: who got rich? No question, the rail lines were built. Too many politicians in Washington felt that the land in the west was desolate or frozen and of little worth. By 1900, when James J. Hill took control of the Northern Pacific and greatly expanded the reach of the rail lines and fostered extensive publicity to bring in settlers. The immigrants flooding into Eastern ports came for the exact purpose of buying land and were not disappointed. 

Another, lesser known, factor pushing development of rail lines across the plains and prairies was a sobering realization that America needed to consolidate her land holdings or possibly lose them to Texas or Mexico and maybe even to Britain and France. Washington politicians realized that the East could not afford to be cut off from the West. 

So land grants acted as a form on non-cash subsidy, making the construction of extremely expensive rail lines across 1000 miles of unsettled land financially feasible for private companies. Ultimately this newly settled land would allow the creation of many thousands of new farms, ranches, mines and towns.