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. It originally took about 6 months to get from the west of the US to the east, but now it only took 7 days. With railroads expanding all across the country, agriculture was affected in a mostly positive way. Now, crops and other goods could be transported by train anywhere in the US, and fast.
In a matter of time, Great Britain was the first to go through the Industrialization phase. “The pace of Industrialization accelerated rapidly”. (Beck, 723) Industrialization had eventually spread to the United States. These two nations have many things in common in regards of the process and impacts of this era. Both nations had natural resources such as large bodies of water, new inventions, rivers, coal deposits, iron ore, and many laborers (Beck, 729)...
The history of railroad development in America was heavily influenced by the industry in England. Attempts to develop the steam engine began as early as 1813. In 1814 George Stephenson developed the first commercially feasible locomotive. From 1820 to 1825 Mr. Stephenson worked on further developing the engines and their ability to haul cargo and, eventually, passengers. Many railroad companies were established in England during this time period. The Liverpool and Manchester Railroad became the first common carrier railroad in the world.
In 1862 Congress Passed the Pacific Railroad Act to establish railroad lines across the U.S. The act provided for large land grants and funding to two of the major railroad companies in the Union Pacific and Central Railroad companies. This helped the development of the transcontinental railroad, which would stretch across the Great Plains to the west coast. The act ultimately awarded over 170 million acres of land to railroad companies to help move along the settlement of the west by improving the means of shipment and transportation. As a result in the large investment railroad companies made in developing the transportation of the west they promoted the land by often helping relocate immigrants and eastern Americans to the plains. Once there German and Irish immigrants often got job's laying track or were sometimes persuaded by the railroad companies to farm and produce cash crops to help repay the debts owed to them for transportation. Many Americans went west in search of land to farm. It is in the land that these settlers came in search of that Congress once again helped contribute to the economic advancement of the west.
a. Railroads in the late nineteenth century helped America become the richest industrial nation on earth. The railroads increased commerce and integrated the American market as well as helped national brands to emerge such as Ivory soap and A&P grocery stores. They also introduced time zones to make shipping and passenger travel more standard. The railroad was the first modern publicly traded corporations, the companies were large and expanding across the country. Railroad companies had a large amount of employees. Capital was needed to build railroad tracks so stocks were sold to the public such as wealthy tycoons such as Vanderbilt and Carnegie. The Railroad system was also a symbol of the partnership between national government and industry. The railroad would have never been created without legislature, land grants passed out by congress. An example would be the Central Pacific Railroad it was backed by wealthy tycoons including Leland Stanford, the ex-governor of California who had useful political connections, and Collis P. Huntington, an adept lobbyist. Railroads gave land th...
Although not a natural resource, railroads were considered one of the key factors in almost every widespread industry. It allowed companies to quickly send products across the entire nation without using expensive and time-consuming caravans or wagons. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a prominent leader in the railroad industry at this time. He was already in his later years by the time the Gilded Age rolled around and didn't even get to see the uprising of some of the greatest leaders of the time. The railroad companies took advantage of their necessity by constantly overcharging customers, especially farmers. This led to one of the first labor unio...
In 1863, the overall enormous construction project, The Transcontinental Railroad, began with the tracks forming from the Central Pacific to the east of Sacramento, where it was completed. The Union Pacific Railroad started building their railroad in 1865, while the Central Pacific Railroad started in 1863. “Congress granted both railroads large tracts of land and millions of dollars in government loans” (The First Transcontinental Railroad 116).
Spearman, Frank H. "The First Transcontinental Railroad." Harper's Monthly Magazine, Volume 109 2011: 711-20. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. .
WriteWork. "The 19th Century 'Railroad Boom.'" WriteWork . N.p., 1 May 2003. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
Two railway companies competed in this venture: The Central Pacific company laid track eastward from Sacramento, California and at the same time The Union Pacific company began laying track westward from Omaha, Nebraska and when the two lines met, the transcontinental railway would be complete. Each company wanted to cover more ground than the other – not just out of pride and competitiveness, but ...
The Transcontinental Railroad was the railroad that connected the East Coast to West Coast. The tracks were 1,776 miles long, laid west of the Mississippi River. America was connected coast to coast for the first time. Construction started on May 10, 1860, and ended six years late at Promontory Summit, Utah. Before the construction even started the planning of the railroad began way early. Surveying the ground began in the early 1850’s. The first train in America started running the early 1830’s. And by the end of 1840’s the entire east coast was laid with the track. Roughly ten thousand miles of track linked cities on the east coast. In the mid 19th century the wild west was as exotic a frontier as outer space today. In the 1850’s following
The Transcontinental railroad could be defined as the most monumental change in America in the 19th century. The railroad played a significant role in westward expansion and on the growth and development of the American economy (Gillon p.653). However, the construction of the transcontinental railroad may not have occurred if not for the generous support of the federal government. The federal government provided land grants and financial subsidies to railroad companies to ensure the construction. The transcontinental railroad contributed to the formation of industry and the market economy in America and forever altered the American lifestyle.
Steamboats were invented in the early 1800's, but it took until the 1820's to make them a common site on U.S. rivers. In the 1840's their popularity kept rising as they continued to increase the amount of trade possible. The reaper, for farming, was also developed in 1831. This allowed more farming in the west on the prairies. 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 made the United States really get going on their Manifest Destiny.
"Railroads were the first big business, the first magnet for the great financial markets, and the first industry to develop a large-scale management bureaucracy. The railroads opened the western half of the nation to economic development, connected raw materials to factories and retailers, and in so doing created an interconnected national market. At the same time the railroads were themselves gigantic consumers of iron, steel, lumber, and other capital goods". (Tindall, Shi)
Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the United States economy changed dramatically as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial gian, becoming the leading manufacturing country in the world. The vast expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s’ changed the early American economy by tying the country together into one national market. The railroads provided tremendous economic growth because it provided a massive market for transporting goods such as steel, lumber, and oil. Although the first railroads were extremely successful, the attempt to finance new railroads originally failed. Perhaps the greatest physical feat late 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Company, starting in San Francisco, and the new competitor, Union Pacific, starting in Omaha. The two companies slaved away crossing mountains, digging tunnels, and laying track the entire way. Both railroads met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, and drove one last golden spike into the completed railway. Of course the expansion of railroads wasn’t the only change being made. Another change in the economy was immigration.