Comment Re:Time (Score 5, Insightful) 709
We kind of frown upon the slave labor that the Chinese and Irish (and others) that were used to build the railroad. If I remember my history correctly, the US government gave the train Barons the land and I think subsidizing them. There was very little population (aside from American Indians) out west. It will probably take 20 years to settle Eminent Domain cases and another 10 to build the rail lines.
I worked on a survey crew to build an outer loop around a mid sized city. The first survey was done in 1984, I worked it in 1998 and they didn't start building until 2003. We did have a few fun run-ins with angry landowners and their shotguns.