In 1862 Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Acts which designated the 32nd parallel as the initial transcontinental route and gave huge grants of lands for rights-of-way. The legislation authorized two railroad companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, to construct the lines.
Overlapping claims by the British and the Iroquois Confederacy resulted in American Indians working together to drive the British off the continent. Overlapping claims by the French, the British, and the Spanish created fierce competition between the three European nations.