The tables show that both currency and gold prices were much higher in 1866 than before the war, and that both remained high while the Union Pacific was being built. Wages were also above the normal, and for similar reasons. During the war the demand for men and goods of all kinds was great. After 1865 the country turned with tremendous energy to industry; and the upward swing, which was unchecked until the panic of 1873, and which was especially directed toward railroad building, maintained both wages and prices at an unusual height. Besides this, American rails were at the time in a period of transition from iron to steel; and much of the work carried through at such expense had completely to be done over within the next ten years. The high prices were made higher by the speed of construction. The Union Pacific built west from the Missouri River, but at the same time the Central Pacific was building east from Sacramento, under similar conditions as to government aid. The two roads were expected to meet at the western boundary of Nevada; but to encourage their early completion, the Act of 1862 authorized the road which first reached the designated point to continue construction, east or west as the case might be, until junction with the second road should be made. Since the amount of land granted depended on the mileage completed, the haste of the companies was feverish. “The Union Pacific Company,” says Davis,[459] “had its parties of graders working 200 miles in advance of its completed line in places as far west as Humboldt Wells.” The Central Pacific had completed 105 miles east of Sacramento by the autumn of 1867, hauling iron and supplies over the mountains without waiting for the piercing of its tunnels. No less than 1038 miles of the Union Pacific, including the difficult stretch over the Rocky Mountains, were completed by 1869, four years after construction was commenced. The prize of additional land was thereby secured, but this land was long unsalable, and the cost of construction was largely increased.