# data[].attributes.body
The great wealth many railroad entrepreneurs acquired in the late 1800s led to accusations that they had built their fortunes by swindling investors and taxpayers, bribing officials, and cheating on their contracts and debts.

# data[].attributes.body
The land was only valuable, however, if the railroads could sell it. To convince people to move west, railroads and real estate companies offered the land at low prices and provided credit to settlers

# data[].attributes.body
Building railroad lines often required more money than most private investors could raise on their own. To encourage railroad construction across the Great Plains, the federal government gave land grants to many railroad companies.

# data[].attributes.body
Large rail companies consolidated hundreds of small, unconnected railroads to create large, integrated railroad systems

# data[].attributes.body
On May 10, 1869, hundreds of spectators gathered at Promontory Summit,

# data[].attributes.body
Under the direction of engineer Grenville Dodge, a former Union general, the Union Pacific Railroad began pushing westward from Omaha, Nebraska, in 1865

# data[].attributes.headline
The railroad boom began in 1862 with the Pacific Railway Act. 

# data[].attributes.subject
The railroad boom began in 1862 with the Pacific Railway Act. 