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Impact of the transcontinental railroad
How railroads changed america thesis and introduction
How railroads changed america thesis and introduction
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America was rapidly changing with the growth of ideas and inventions in the early nineteenth century. A major factor that allowed the United States to flourish in the late nineteenth century was the installment of the railroad system. The push to build railroads in the United States began in the 1830s and carried on far into the 1870s. The railways became an important system that guided settlement and delivered economic opportunity for much of the United States. Railroads allowed access to places that people had no means of getting to and provided an opportunity to develop cities and towns. The impact of the railways allowed the United States to become more mobile and efficient as it was going through a period of change. The railways changed the United States forever giving important links to the rest of the country. In the early nineteenth century the nation’s highways were the waterways such as rivers and canals. These means of travel were effective to an extent, but were limited by their permanent routes. The situation with the United States was that there was a thin population spread out over an enormous country, with long distances between major cities. Business owners and the government were looking for ways to improve economic chances. Cheap efficient land transportation was an essential need of the industrial revolution because the existing road transportation by wagon was just simply too slow. England was the first country to have railroads. In the 1930s the United States imported England’s technology for the railroads. The United States soon became self-reliable with their factories and numerous inventors and engineers improving the quality of the equipment being used on the railroads. In the early railroading day... ... middle of paper ... ...ner’s Sons, 1889 Brown, William H. The History of the First Locomotives In America. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1871 Stimson, A.L. History of the Express Business; Origin of the Railway System in America. New York: Baker and Godwin, Printers, 1881 Ophem, Marieke Van. The Iron Horse: the impact of the railroads on 19th century American society. University of Groningen, 1994-2010 Crandall, John. Railroads and the Market Economy. http://suite101.com, 2007 web. Withuhn, Bill. American Railroads in the 20th Century. http://americanhistory.si.edu. National Museum of American History. web. "Economy in Transcontinental Railroad.” Schmoop University, Inc. copyright: 2011 http://www.shmoop.com/transcontinental-railroad/economy.html web. “Driving the Last Spike.” San Francisco News Letter, September 1925. http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/rail.html web.
Farmers began to cultivate vast areas of needed crops such as wheat, cotton, and even corn. Document D shows a picture of The Wheat Harvest in 1880, with men on earlier tractors and over 20-30 horses pulling the tractor along the long and wide fields of wheat. As farmers started to accumilate their goods, they needed to be able to transfer the goods across states, maybe from Illinios to Kansas, or Cheyenne to Ohmaha. Some farmers chose to use cattle trails to transport their goods. Document B demonstrates a good mapping of the major railroads in 1870 and 1890. Although cattle trails weren't used in 1890, this document shows the existent of several cattle trails leading into Chyenne, San Antonio, Kansas City and other towns nearby the named ones in 1870. So, farmers began to transport their goods by railroads, which were publically used in Germany by 1550 and migrated to the United States with the help of Colonel John Stevens in 1826. In 1890, railroads expanded not only from California, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada, but up along to Washington, Montana, Michigan, down to New Mexico and Arizona as well. Eastern States such as New Jersey, Tennesse, Virginia and many others were filled with existing railroads prior to 1870, as Colonel John Stevens started out his railroad revolutionzing movement in New Jersey in 1815.
Ambrose, Stephen. Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Print.
To urban middle-class Americans of the late 19th century, nothing symbolized the progress of the American civilization quite as much as the railroad. Not only had the great surge in railroad construction after the Civil War helped to create a modern market economy, but the iron horse itself seemed to embody the energy, force, and technology of the new order. In fact, the fanning out of railroads from urban centers was an integral part of the modernizing process, tying the natural and human resources of rural areas to the industrializing core.
In Henry George’s article, What the Railroad Will Bring Us, it discusses the main social, political, and economic transformations that the trans-continental railroad would bring to the state of California. More importantly, he discusses not only the benefits, but also discusses the major drawbacks with the arrival of the railroad. Henry George stated the railroad would be the “greatest work of the age” (297). With a railroad stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, multiple benefits would be brought to the state of California. First, the railroad will not only create a new means of transportation across the United States, it additionally would also become “one of the greatest material prosperity” of its time (298). This means more people, more houses,
Ophem, Marieke Van. "The Iron Horse: the impact of the railroads on 19th century American society."
The growth of agriculture and railroads in Texas and in the United States helped form our economy today. Railroads today pass through a lot of Texas, and even in big cities like Houston or Dallas. Since there are so many farms and open farmland (especially in south and west Texas), railroads can carry the produce and livestock to their destination. James Watt invented the first steam engine in about 1769, and from then on, railroads were a must for transportation, since cars had yet to be invented. Railroads began to be built before the Civil War.
During the 1800’s, America was going through a time of invention and discovery known as the Industrial Revolution. America was in its first century of being an independent nation and was beginning to make the transition from a “home producing” nation to a technological one. The biggest contribution to this major technological advancement was the establishment of the Transcontinental Railroad because it provided a faster way to transport goods, which ultimately boosted the economy and catapulted America to the Super Power it is today. Throughout the beginning of the 19th century, America was still being harassed by her former mother country, Britain.
The developments in transportation changed the American economy and society from 1820 to 1860 in ways of an increased land value, faster traded goods, new cities, and a deeper sense of nationalism. Before these changes came about, the US economy and society was based on an agrarian setting. After this time frame, American Society turned into a capitalist marketplace. In the northern US, there were few changes in terms of industry because they were involved in an industrial revolution. However, the new Transportation Revolution blasted the West into an agricultural empire that provided consumable exports to the other parts of the country.
As the need of human transportation and various forms of cargo began to rise in the United States of America, a group of railroads with terminal connections along the way began to form across the land mass of this country, ending with the result of one of the most influential innovations in American history, allowing trade to flow easily from location to location, and a fast form of transportation, named the Transcontinental Railroad.
Many other farming machines were also developed during this time period, they all made farming in the west much more popular, easier, and profitable. The Trans-continental railroad was started in 1862, even though other trains were already running in different parts of the U.S. The telegraph also went up along with the railroads, although the first time it was used was in 1844. All four of these major technological advancements have helped the United States really get going on their Manifest Destiny. The economy would also blossom during this expansion.
Seavoy, Ronald E. "Railroads." An Economic History of the United States: From 1607 to the Present. New York: Routledge, 2006. 188-200. Print.
Transportation was a large factor in the market revolution. During the years of 1815 and 1840, there were many forms of improved transportation. Roads, steamboats, canals, and railroads lowered the cost and shortened the time of travel. By making these improvements, products could be shipped into other areas for profit (Roark, 260). Steamboats set off a huge industry and by 1830, more than 700 steamboats were in operating up and down the Ohio and Mississippi River (Roark, 261). Steamboats also had some flaws, due to the fact of deforesting the paths along the rivers. Wood was needed to refuel the power to the boat. The carbon emissions from the steamboats polluted the air (Roark, 261). The building of roads was a major connecting point for states. There were some arguments of who would pay for...
As the United States grew in power, so did her ideas of expansion. The foreign powers were beginning to move out of their continents and seek land in other countries. The United States soon followed. They followed in their founder’s footsteps and tried to occupy lands in the far seas. However, in the beginning, this need for more land was called Manifest Destiny. This idea claimed that God was forcing them to occupy the new western lands. The expansionism that occurred in the late 1800’s was not a result of Manifest Destiny, and thus this "new" idea of expansionism was different from the expansionism ideas of early America. For the most part, the United States’ need for more land was primarily to keep other nations (mainly European powers) out of the western hemisphere. However the United States began to see reason behind change towards the "new" expansionistic ideas.
With the mining came the railroads. In December of 1878 the first train came to New Mexico, the Atchison, Topeka, and S...
Summers, Mark. Railroads, reconstruction, and the gospel of prosperity: Aid under the Radical Republicans. Princeton University Press, 1951, Print.