BUILDING COST
The cost of the railroad was not cheap at all. Depending on how good the land was, a mile of track could span anywhere from $16,000-$48,000. This is equivalent to about $320,000-$960,000 today for one mile, for a grand total of $691,200,000 just for the track alone. Most of the land along the route was unowned, because the mid west part of America had just been bought in the Louisiana Purchase and still unsettled.