The Land Grant Act of 1850[1] provided for 3.75 million acres of land to the United States to support railroad projects; by 1857 21 million acres of public lands were used for railroads in the
Mississippi River valley, and the stage was set for more substantial Congressional subsidies to future railroads.[2]
^An Act Granting Right of Way, and making a Grant of Land to the States of Illinois, Mississippi, and Alabama, in Aid of the Construction of a Railroad from Chicago to Mobile (9
Stat. 466)
^Julian E. Zelizer, The American Congress: the building of democracy,
p.288
^Stover, John F.; Carnes, Mark Christopher (1999). The Routledge historical atlas of the American railroads: Routledge atlases of American history. New York: Routledge.
ISBN0415921406.
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