Rob Bishop: “In most of the history books that I do, that I have seen, when we taught high school history, they always talk about how…”

“In most of the history books that I do, that I have seen, when we taught high school history, they always talk about how this nation came together with the uniting of the railroads, the UP and the Central Pacific joining together and how the Federal Government subsidized that process and was the only viable way of getting that done. We provided the railroad system. One of the concepts, though, as I was reading another book that took a closer look on this issue is that not only did the Federal Government help with this railroad building craze but the idea that the Federal Government became involved changed the mechanism in which railroads were built and the kinds of ways they were built. We paid railroads for every mile of track that was laid, which meant you gave them more money if they went to a mountainous route than on flat land.”