why did the government offer each railroad company building the transcontinental railroad land
First Transcontinental Railroad To allow the companies to raise additional capital, Congress granted the railroads a 400-foot (120 m) right-of-way corridor, lands for additional facilities like sidings and maintenance yards. They were also granted alternate sections of government-owned lands—6,400 acres (2,600 ha) per mile (1.6 km)—for 10 miles (16 km) on both sides of the track, forming a checkerboard pattern. The railroad companies were given the odd-numbered sections while the federal government retained the even-numbered sections. The exception was in cities, at rivers, or on non-government property.[38] The railroads sold bonds based on the value of the lands, and in areas with good land like the Sacramento Valley and Nebraska[39] sold the land to settlers, contributing to a rapid settlement of the West.[40][verification needed] The total area of the land grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific was larger than the area of the state of Texas: federal government land grants totaled about 203,128,500 square miles, and state government land grants totaled about 76,565,000 square miles.[41]