The Engineering That Built the World s01e01 Race for the Railroad Subtitles

00:00:01,740 --> 00:00:08,In the 1860s, America is divided by
civil war and 2 ,000 miles

00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:10,of unclaimed land west of Mississippi.

00:00:11,700 --> 00:00:18,At this time, it was way easier to
travel to Europe from the east coast of

00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:19,.S. than to get to California.

00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,But one man has an audacious dream to
connect the country.

00:00:24,420 --> 00:00:27,America needs a transcontinental
railroad.

00:00:29,710 --> 00:00:33,Building it becomes a high -stakes race
between rival companies.

00:00:34,910 --> 00:00:36,Competition was very bitter.

00:00:37,750 --> 00:00:41,Both are trying to seize as much land as
they possibly can.

00:00:41,370 --> 00:00:43,More miles of track we lay, the richer
we get.

00:00:44,730 --> 00:00:47,They'll stop at nothing to claim their
fortune.

00:00:47,830 --> 00:00:53,He is one of the most dishonest people
to ever grace this planet.

00:00:53,970 --> 00:00:56,It's a daunting engineering challenge.

00:00:56,830 --> 00:01:01,This was one of the biggest
accomplishments in world history.

00:01:01,230 --> 00:01:04,mountains to finally connect the coasts.

00:01:04,910 --> 00:01:09,This is the race to build the
Transcontinental Railroad.

00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:38,It's the middle of the 19th century, and
the United States is extending its

00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,territory westward, all the way to the
Pacific Ocean.

00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,But for settlers attempting the journey,
what they encounter is nearly

00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:53,unfathomable. Traversing this is a major
undertaking. It's known as the Great

00:01:53,220 --> 00:01:54,American Desert.

00:01:54,160 --> 00:02:00,From about midway through Nebraska out
to the Rocky Mountains, it's a no -man's

00:02:00,060 --> 00:02:02,land as far as white Americans are
concerned.

00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:08,The thing about the West is a harsh
environment. If you're riding in a

00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:12,you can only go about 20 miles a day,
which means that you're going to be on

00:02:12,140 --> 00:02:14,wagon trail for months and months and
months.

00:02:15,220 --> 00:02:20,You might get caught in the winter in
the mountains, which, of course, is

00:02:20,180 --> 00:02:21,for you and your family.

00:02:22,740 --> 00:02:29,Then, almost overnight, the number
braving the journey explodes to some
00:02:29,020 --> 00:02:31,in what will become known as...

00:02:32,170 --> 00:02:33,the gold rush.

00:02:34,730 --> 00:02:39,In the late 1840s, gold was discovered.
Huge amount of wealth was being

00:02:39,650 --> 00:02:40,generated in California.

00:02:41,230 --> 00:02:47,People wanted to get out there and be
part of that growth, but it was almost

00:02:47,110 --> 00:02:48,impossible to get there.

00:02:49,590 --> 00:02:55,You have to remember at this time, it
was way easier to travel to Europe from

00:02:55,590 --> 00:02:57,the east coast of the U .S. than to get
to California.

00:02:59,530 --> 00:03:03,There are alternative routes by sea, but
they're exponentially longer.

00:03:04,850 --> 00:03:11,It was tens of thousands of miles, or
you had to take a steamship down to

00:03:11,530 --> 00:03:15,Panama or Nicaragua, make an overland
journey, then get another boat off the

00:03:15,810 --> 00:03:16,coast to San Francisco.

00:03:17,390 --> 00:03:22,If you were to go the long way around
the tip of South America, it could take

00:03:22,250 --> 00:03:24,six months because you're at the mercy
of wind.

00:03:25,430 --> 00:03:27,There is a faster method on the horizon.

00:03:30,130 --> 00:03:36,Railroad. But of the little track that's
been built by 1860, 96 % is east of St.

00:03:36,910 --> 00:03:37,Louis.

00:03:37,870 --> 00:03:43,There is only one established railroad
west, but it's contained to California.

00:03:46,530 --> 00:03:50,And now its innovative designer is
working on something bigger.

00:03:51,210 --> 00:03:56,Members of Congress, esteemed members of
Congress, America needs a

00:03:56,830 --> 00:03:58,transcontinental railroad.

00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:01,to connect the Pacific and the Atlantic
Oceans.

00:04:03,300 --> 00:04:05,Theodore Judah was a real visionary.

00:04:05,540 --> 00:04:09,He was also one of the first civilian
engineers in the U .S.

00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:15,He was a big believer in using those
skills to improve the world, to make

00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:16,better for people.

00:04:17,180 --> 00:04:22,At age 11, Judah's admitted to
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at the

00:04:22,900 --> 00:04:25,the country's only civilian engineering
college.

00:04:27,150 --> 00:04:31,His whole life seemed to be moving
towards this moment.

00:04:32,510 --> 00:04:37,The notion of building a
transcontinental railroad in the 1860s

00:04:37,390 --> 00:04:43,fantastic to think about because nothing
of that size had ever been even

00:04:43,230 --> 00:04:44,attempted before.

00:04:44,270 --> 00:04:46,And so it was like a moonshot.

00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,Railroad companies struggling to cross
something like the Allegheny Mountains.

00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:54,And he says, let's cross the entire
continent.

00:04:54,840 --> 00:04:59,You're talking about 2 ,000 miles of
rail. This would be like someone today

00:04:59,700 --> 00:05:03,our environment saying, you know what we
should do? We should colonize Mars now.

00:05:03,660 --> 00:05:04,Let's do that.

00:05:06,260 --> 00:05:11,The boldest part of Judah's plan,
building east from Sacramento,

00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:14,through one of the steepest mountain
ranges in North America.

00:05:15,850 --> 00:05:22,A steam engine can only climb a grade of
a certain degree, a very gradual climb.

00:05:23,150 --> 00:05:28,The Sierra Nevada are notoriously steep,
rocky granite peaks.

00:05:29,630 --> 00:05:35,There's a limited amount of friction
that can be generated. Having a metal

00:05:35,050 --> 00:05:39,on a metal railroad, they could only go
so high so far in terms of the grade,

00:05:39,890 --> 00:05:43,which means for every hundred feet you
go.

00:05:43,690 --> 00:05:45,Laterally, you can only go two feet up.

00:05:46,890 --> 00:05:51,That means you have to engineer the line
so that you make sure that that grade

00:05:51,750 --> 00:05:53,is something that the train can manage.

00:05:56,770 --> 00:06:02,And finally, once we've made it through
the Sierra Nevada... Through mountains?

00:06:03,090 --> 00:06:05,I ** sure there's a way.

00:06:05,730 --> 00:06:06,Who's funding this?

00:06:07,870 --> 00:06:10,Well, I'm looking for investors.

00:06:14,349 --> 00:06:15,It's a good plan.

00:06:15,670 --> 00:06:18,I guarantee you it'll be profitable.

00:06:18,870 --> 00:06:19,Crazy.

00:06:20,950 --> 00:06:25,As Judah runs into a dead end in
Washington, 1 ,500 miles away,

00:06:25,950 --> 00:06:32,a former surgeon is making moves in the
railroad industry, hoping

00:06:32,830 --> 00:06:34,to strike it rich.

00:06:34,310 --> 00:06:38,Thomas Durant is an ambitious man. He
received a medical degree at the age of

00:06:38,950 --> 00:06:39,20.

00:06:40,010 --> 00:06:45,He practiced medicine for all of three
years before he decided to move on. For

00:06:45,050 --> 00:06:47,him, everything was about self
-interest.

00:06:47,410 --> 00:06:51,How to make the most money. He didn't
let other people get in his way.

00:06:52,170 --> 00:06:57,Now the co -owner of a small regional
railroad, Durant is thinking bigger,

00:06:57,350 --> 00:07:01,manipulating its finances for his own
gain. It's gone.

00:07:02,570 --> 00:07:04,The bond money, it's gone.

00:07:05,590 --> 00:07:07,Expenses were higher than we
anticipated.

00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:11,He went behind my back.

00:07:13,220 --> 00:07:15,God helps those who help themselves.

00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:25,Durant tanks the railroad stock, buys in
big, then spreads a false rumor to

00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:26,inflate the stock back up again.

00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:34,Durant then sells his company's inflated
stock and buys in to the most powerful

00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:37,railroad company in the U .S., the Union
Pacific.

00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:44,Thomas Durant finagled the $2 million he
needed to buy into the Union Pacific,

00:07:44,740 --> 00:07:48,and he manages to become the vice
president.

00:07:50,020 --> 00:07:54,Durant's move positions him as one of
the biggest players in the U .S. train

00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:55,industry.

00:07:55,800 --> 00:08:02,He sees an opportunity to make fistfuls
of money by building a railroad. He

00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:04,really is not worried about how well it
functions.

00:08:05,020 --> 00:08:07,He just wants to make his cash and get
out.

00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:15,Meanwhile, out west, Judah convinces
four Sacramento businessmen to invest in

00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:16,his impossible dream.

00:08:17,460 --> 00:08:22,Led by millionaire merchants Charles
Crocker and Leland Stanford, who will go

00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:26,to found Stanford University, they form
the Central Pacific Railroad.

00:08:27,700 --> 00:08:30,They're known as the Big Four.

00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:36,To put Judah's...