gpsman wrote:

"The grants made between 1850 and 1871 turned over to the railroad
companies about 159 million acres of the public domain, an area
exceeding five states the size of Pennsylvania."

Um...it's a common misconception that the government simply gifted the
developing railroads these lands. That's not true. The railroads were
required to carry government traffic at reduced rates which more than made
up for the value of the land. This was finally repealed in the 1940's and
by then it had more than compensated for the land.

http://dev.aar.org/AAR/IndustryInformation/
~/media/AAR/BackgroundPapers/144.ashx