Money woes for the builders were constant. One rail executive, Leland Stanford, solved that problem by becoming the governor of California. Between 1862 and 1864, Governor Stanford and his allies pushed through state laws favoring his company, the Central Pacific Railroad, particularly bills that gave it millions of dollars in state bonds. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 granted Central Pacific, along with the Union Pacific Railroad company, contiguous rights of way for their rail lines, as well as 200 feet of public land on either side of the track.

In return, the nation received much-needed jobs for Civil War veterans and immigrants like my great-grandfather. But no matter how hard the men toiled, construction fell behind. At one point, according to family lore, a frustrated foreman organized dueling crews and egged them on by shouting: “The train has left the station!” The men toiled as if a locomotive were about to mow them down and, sure enough, they set a record for laying the most rails in one day.

In 1869, after years of delays and cost overruns, the transcontinental railroad was finally completed. It was the last missing link connecting the American West to the Eastern Seaboard, and a cross-country trip that had once taken six months was cut to around a week. Even better, it produced a commercial flow of grain, lumber and other commodities which in turn created a superstructure for shipping, trading and financing — and jobs, lots of jobs. For those reasons, the transcontinental is considered to be one of the greatest technological feats of the 19th century.

Now, almost 150 years later, the high-speed bullet train aims to hit a similar goal. Last month, officials broke ground on the system that will eventually link San Diego to San Francisco, and tie the California coast on the west (where most travelers live) to the Central Valley in the east (where the tracks lie). By binding together these four zones, the train could help breach the state’s cultural divides and revive its fortunes.

Yet the $68 billion mega-project is controversial. Some believe that it’s a frivolous expenditure, a legacy project for Gov. Jerry Brown, who hasn’t yet lined up all the necessary funds. Whereas Governor Stanford and his fellow robber barons gained federal aid by pushing the Pacific Railroad Act through Congress, today’s Republican-controlled Congress has already blocked any more federal dollars for the train. And the price tag will certainly swell before the last bolt is tightened by 2030.