The Rail Center of the Nation

The Rail Center of the Nation (It got a 98% in AP US-History)

The nation network of railroads laid from 1848 through the Civil War, and

the steam powered locomotives that traversed them, supplied Chicago with

vast new markets, resources, and people who quickly transformed it from a

quiet Frontier village into a highly populated industrial powerhouse. The

Chicago of 1830 was hardly a city at all. Fort Dearborn located near the

fork of what is now the Chicago River was bogged down with mud and

tormented by disease and Indian wars. By the 1833 when the city was

incorporated, a warehouse, dry good's store, and hotel had all been built.

William B. Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago was also the first to attempt

to give Chicago a railroad. He chartered the Galena and Chicago Railroad

in 1836, but it collapsed with the economic disaster of 1837 (Berger 3).

Ogden tried again in 1846, and on October 22, 1848 Chicago's first

locomotive, "Pioneer", was loaded onto the tracks (Casey, Douglas 59). In

retrospect, "Pioneer" turned out to be a fitting name for the city's first

train, because by 1866 there were more than forty railroads serving

Chicago and the city's population had skyrocketed to just under 300,000.

There were many problems that needed to be resolved starting in the 1830s,

before a railroad could become a versatile enough to be a cost effective

carrier of freight and people. The nation's original tracks had been

built mainly of wood, although cheaper than iron, it was quickly decided

that iron's durability was well worth the extra cost. Another development

was the placement of ballas, or pebbles, that covered the bottom of the

tracks and added weight and stability along with drainage to the tracks.

Also, the trains were known to collide head on into grazing animals. The

problem lay in how to keep the animal from being pulled under the train

and causing it to derail. This answer came with the placement of a hood

plate on the front of the locomotive so that whatever hit the train would

be pushed harmlessly in front of it and could later be cleared without

endangering the train. Other major safety issues found solutions with the

utilization of lights and horns (Gordon 27-33). By 1848, when Chicago was

ready to start building railroads, the technology had already been

developed enough to conduct real business.

Charters for railroads leading to Chicago soon began to pour in.

After the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was completed shortly after