...RAILROADS KEY IN WESTERN EXPANSION BETWEEN 1860 AND 1890 HIST 102: American History since 1877 May 21, 2016 Professor HIST 102 19 May 2016 Railroads Key in Western Expansion between 1860 and 1890 The time period between 1860 and 1890 in American history were critical times for westward expansion in the nation. During this period the nation went through sweeping changes as many territories and unorganized territories became states, major cities nearly tripled in number and agriculture saw a dramatic increase in improved agricultural land. This expansion from east to west was most definitely facilitated by the significant increase in the railroad networks. In the early 1860’s the farthest west the railroads touched were the eastern border of Texas. By the end of the 1890’s the railroads had expanded as far as the most western border of California, northern tip of Washington and the Southern border of Texas. In the early 1860’s approximately two thirds of the United States domestic lands were actually States, while four were still considered unorganized territories and the remaining were territories. At this time there were two prominent railroads in the United States, these two lines were the Central and the Pacific Railways. Contracts were awarded to these two companies to bring westward expansion and connect the east and west coasts. The growth and expansion of the nation’s railroads also brought millions of immigrant workers to the nation compromised...
Words: 1105 - Pages: 5
...The B&O Railroad By: Jaime Lewis For: Professor Knutson November 26, 2013 CON 101 Abstract The construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad started in July of 1828. The city of Baltimore came up with the idea to build this railroad from Baltimore to Ohio because of the competition throughout the popular seaports in the United States. Baltimore was already a popular city, but adding a train that could carry people as well as goods would make more people travel to Baltimore, and other places along the train’s route, bring goods into Baltimore, and help keep Baltimore alive. The B&O railroad was always expanding. The railroad is best known for being the first railroad in the United States that used a steam locomotive. B&O Railroad Why was there a need for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad? The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was built due to competition throughout the main seaports in the United States. Due to the fact that Baltimore is at the top of the Chesapeake Bay, it had many advantages over other ports. Another way for goods to be transported from Baltimore all they way to Ohio was a great idea for Baltimore, therefore causing the plan for the B&O Railroad. During this time Baltimore was flooding with business. They constantly had ships coming into the harbor as well as trucks riding the highways. Baltimore was (and still is) such a popular and thriving city, so the railroad made sense to help keep business, and the city, alive. Baltimore had to...
Words: 2781 - Pages: 12
...Railroad Essay The Northern Pacific Railroad has affected many things that we do today. It has shaped Washington into what it is. It has created countless technological advancements. It impacted and improved the businesses that make up Washington and most importantly it showed us the potential of the things we can do and opened many different pathways to the opportunities available today. It was built in 1864 thanks to Henry Villard who raised over 16 million dollars and was the president of the NPRR. It was mainly supported by the federal land grants where the government sold them cheap land within one square mile of the railroad. The railroad then continued to sell the land to other settlers, which is how they made most of their money to...
Words: 1020 - Pages: 5
...Imagine the cattle town of Sioux City, Iowa, in 1912. What wasn’t dusty was surely muddy. What wasn’t hauled by wagons or riverboats was loaded on railcars. Livestock was bought and sold every single day, coal was being unloaded and burned, and buildings and houses of brick and stone were going up. The scent of progress was in the air when Hubert Everist stepped off the train and made his way to his father’s place of business. His father, L.G. Everist, was a purveyor of retail coal on what was lower 4th Street. Much of his time during the past 15 years had been spent gaining a slim foothold in the very competitive coal business in this hardscrabble boomtown in western Iowa. We don’t know what the conversation was that day, but by the end of it, Hubert, age 25, was sitting at the president’s desk and his father...
Words: 1088 - Pages: 5
...The railroad is one of the most convenient and safe transportation in the world. Greece is the first country that had the railroad transportation. Thousand years ago, horses dragged the cars along the railroad. In 1804, Richard Trevithick invent the first steam train that can move in the railroads. Later in 1820s, the first railroad is made in the England. As the main transportation, the railroads were also significant for the United State in 1800 to 1850. Between 1832 and 1837, there were 1200miles railroads in the United Stated. In the next decades, it brought many changes. The railroads connected the cities. It shortened the time that travelled from one city to another. It created the possibilities for the people who needed to travel to...
Words: 305 - Pages: 2
...Industrialization after the Civil War affected the United States in several ways including poverty, poor labor laws, and the condition of the people. Between 1865 and 1920, Industrialization had many positive effects on society which caused change in people’s daily lives. The first major innovation that was beneficial was the new railroad system. Railroads out west played a huge part in the successful expansion of our country. Prior to the development of a more efficient railroad system, the movement of people and freight were slow, difficult, and cost efficient. Most goods had to be produced and provided locally on a small scale. As a result, prices for products were costly. Despite that, with the help of federal grants, railroad developers were able to build a more efficient railroad system that would connect the established east with the unsettled west. After the completion of the new railroads system, farmers were in practical distance of railroad depots, which meant manufacturers could locate their plants anywhere and be able to bring in raw materials and send their products wherever they could locate customers. With the railroads connecting the east and the west coast, many people moved westward and began to take advantage of the opportunities over there that was offered, such as cheap land, gold, new businesses, and...
Words: 1305 - Pages: 6
...The three most important factors in the changing structure of the American city during the Gilded Age were changes in transportation, mass production methods, and urbanization. It simply wasn’t possible for large numbers of people to live in cities before the creation of the railroad, trolley, streetcar, or other method of public transportation. It was not possible to build skyscrapers until late in the 19th century so developers were limited by how high they could build. Most cities could feasibly only be a few miles long as the main method of transportation was walking. People had to be able to walk from their home to their place of within a half hour which restricted city sizes. That changed with the creation of the railroad and subsequently smaller methods of public transportation such as the trolley. People could live further from their place of work and the rush to the suburbs...
Words: 462 - Pages: 2
...Railroad Innovations John Stevens was born in New York City, on June 26, 1749. He came from a wealthy family with political connections. He graduated from King’s College in New York City graduation in 1768. But after, he served in the Revolutionary War, later his focus shifted towards inventing transportation John Stevens was an inventor in the late 1700s, early 1800s, who invented many different ways of transportation. He is responsible for the invention of laying the idea of the railroad system down, and also the first steam powered ferry. Stevens got many of his ideas from pioneers James Rumsey and John Fitch, although his designs were very different. Stevens first railroad, which was set in what is now New Jersey, was very impressive, lying almost from coast to coast. He was known was the first successful conductor of the railroad system in the United States....
Words: 546 - Pages: 3
...Americans and buffalo. The Transcontinental Railroad and many other new developments were made. During this time, the economy was booming and everyone wanted a piece of the pie. Immigrants were flooding in from other countries in search of prosperity. The first influxes of workers were the rural Americans who were disillusioned and went bankrupted when their dreams of owning a prosperous farm went bankrupt. Most of the immigrants that came to America were trying to escape poverty and oppression from their homelands. Most of the immigrant workers came to America with expectations of new opportunities, some were true, and some were offered broken promises. Many employers would front the immigrants the funds to travel to America and then deduct that amount from their wages; it was not until 1885 when employers were told to stop. Immigrants flooded America to find a new beginning; little did they know they were walking into paid slavery. The standard of living rose after the end of the Civil War, however the pay the immigrants received did not, the average American worker received $400 to $500 a year when the amount to live with reasonable comfort was set at $600. During these hard times people still fled to America in search for higher living conditions and many found it, however many did not. Those people helped pave the way for the style we have today. It was not until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad when the economic boom really hit. The east...
Words: 542 - Pages: 3
...undignified blood spilled on its soil, New Mexico was desperately craving a change in events; something that would assist its citizens positively, and thus, in the 1960s, came a redeeming event, the introduction of the railroad to the United States. The railroad, otherwise known as the First Transcontinental railroad, was all part of an elaborate competition between two companies to connect the coastlines. An incredible feat that appropriated nearly ten years to construct, one can consider it one of the most crucial technological advances in the history of our country that allowed the effortless fleeting of goods and people across the country. The railroad’s construction began during the horror that was the Civil War and promptly...
Words: 1004 - Pages: 5
...state to ban slavery. One of the most famous actions of these Quaker Friends was the successful transfer of fugitive slaves via “Underground Railroad” from the slave states to both Union as well as Canadian cities from the hub city of Philadelphia.The goal of most slaves who attempted to escape their masters and plantation slave life was not seeking Canada but places of safety. This mysterious Underground Railroad was made famous by such previously fugitive slaves as Ms. Harriet Tubman and Mr. Frederick Douglass. These two black people as well as many others, were assisted in their escape from bondage by other blacks (free and post-fugitive blacks) and especially by influential anti-slavery and anti-war white people such as Quakers and other anti-war and Christian based faiths. Many of these groups were instrumental in providing ‘conductors’, station masters’ as well as money, clothes, horses, and transportation as well as reading and writing skills. It has been estimated 40,000 fugitive slaves utilized some aspect of the Underground Railroad from the bondage of slavery in the Southern States to a place of safety, right up to the end of the Civil War in 1865. In the spring of 1838, a slave named Frederick Bailey, planned and executed his escape from bondage and through his own unique devices and helpful blacks, ended up in New York City at 36 Lispenard Street, the home of the Black...
Words: 1623 - Pages: 7
...Without railroads the early Nevadans would have been hard-pressed to be successful in settling the state for the long term. It is true that railroad connections made it easier to transport ore from the mines to the point of sale, but the railroads were also vital in the upstart of other industries in the fledgling state. The railroad was an industry of its own and many others popped up around it, such as merchants who would sell food and other supplies to those who passed through. This in turn inspired the development agricultural land in Nevada to produce food for these merchants. The railroads allowed ranches to flourish because they provided a quick and cost-effective way of moving cattle to auction and processing plants which were mainly in...
Words: 529 - Pages: 3
...again because, It gives more links then the others I went to. My phrase was "Dallas Texas History". Dallas was founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city on February 2 1856. The city is well known for its role in the petroleum industry, telecommunications, computer technology, banking, and transportation. It is the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States. Dallas's prominence also comes from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, its position along numerous railroad lines, and its powerful industrial and financial tycoons. Dallas was just another small town dotting the Texas frontier until after the American Civil War in which it was part of the Confederate States of America, and only legally became a city in 1871. The city paid the Houston and Central Texas Railroad US $5,000 to shift its route 20 miles to the west and build its north-south tracks through Dallas, rather than through Corsicana as planned. A year later, Dallas leaders could not pay the Texas and Pacific Railroad to locate there, so they devised a way to trick the Railroad. Dallas had a provision attached to a state law which required the railroad to build its tracks through Browder Springs-which turned out to be just south of Main Street. In 1873, the major north-south and east-west Texas railroad routes intersected in Dallas, thus ensuring its future as a commercial center. By the turn of the twentieth century Dallas was the leading drug, book, jewelry...
Words: 705 - Pages: 3
...life and human society in some way. During this time period, widespread transportation such as railroads became available and important for the movement of goods and people. Also, new social reforms came about, dealing with critical issues including that of child labor. In addition, the effects of the revolution resulted in a great improvement in living standards for many people. Although the positive affects of the Industrial Revolution were plentiful, there were also several negative affects concerning the issues of railroads, child labor, and certain living conditions. The railroads built during the Industrial Revolution allowed for widespread transportation to now be available for goods and people. Consequently, the coal burned in train engines created great pollution resulting in an unhealthy and dangerous environment for the people. In addition, as European governments became involved with the creation of railroads, taxes increased resulting in the lower classes experiencing greater burdens. Despite these negative repercussions, railroads were beneficial to society in a variety of ways. Railroads created a way for people to quickly and easily move throughout their own countries and other various parts of the world. The simple and speedy transportation of people allowed for a sharing of ideas and cultures by bringing people to other parts of the world. In addition, railroads were very useful in the trading and transportation of goods by providing an easier, quicker, and...
Words: 1367 - Pages: 6
...Agricultural Marketing Service February 2014 Railroad Concentration, Market Shares, and Rates Marvin Prater • Adam Sparger • Daniel O’Neil, Jr. Summary Since the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980, many railroads have merged. The market share of Class I railroads has increased since then, while the number of Class I railroads has fallen to only seven. Through railroad mergers, rail-torail competition has been reduced, railroad market power has increased, and rail costs have fallen by over half in real terms. Over much of this period, most of these reduced costs were passed on to shippers as savings through lower rates. Since 2004, however, average rail rates per ton-mile for all commodities have climbed 36 percent, negating some of the savings over the period. Although some of these real rail rate increases have contributed to record rail profitability and capital investment, most of the rate increases are the result of increased railroad costs; real rail costs, adjusted for productivity, increased 29 percent during the same period. Although deregulation of railroads in 1980 produced more than 550 regional and local railroads throughout America, the 7 Class I railroads originated well over half the grain and oilseed shipments in 2011. Introduction For many years, railroads have been merging in order to increase efficiency and develop financially stable rail businesses large enough to compete with other modes of transportation, mostly trucks and barges. Following...
Words: 2209 - Pages: 9
