How Did The Invention Of Steam Locomotives Impact The World?

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

Railroads were a huge step in innovations for the United States. The transcontinental Railroad was

Larry Page once said, “Especially in technology, [we] need revolutionary change, not incremental change.” Whether he is speaking about the Transcontinental Railroad system or the latest iPhone, what he says is true. If change is going to happen, it needs to bring a revolution of some kind along with it, otherwise, it will just become lost in history. This makes us wonder, how did the railroad system affect the US? The railroad system benefited the US most economically by industrializing towns it ran through, lowering shipping costs, and allowing for mass imports and exports.

“Before the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, it cost nearly $1,000 dollars to travel across the country. After the railroad was completed, the price dropped to $150 dollars.”(History.com Staff). Prior to the railroad the average citizen of America could not afford to travel across the country cheaply. America waited for a means of transportation which would connect them from the Western to Eastern states. The responsibility of creating the railroads were left up to construction companies. Once this invention was created, traveling became quick, easy and affordable. The Transcontinental Railroad could be defined as the most significant change in America, during the 19th Century.

At first, overland travel was slow and expensive, and the west was isolated from the rest of the nation. Canals, steamboats, and railroads began to appear, resulting in faster travel, cheaper transport, and greater economic growth. The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, connected New York City to the Great Lakes. It cut the trip time from twenty days to six days and made it much cheaper to ship goods, which later inspired many new canal projects. Additionally, steam engines used the steam produced by boiling water to drive machinery. They were developed as a new source of power in the early 1700s and improved by James Watt in 1765 to be used in factories and for transportation. In 1807, Robert Fulton used the idea of steam power to built one of the first boats powered by a steam engine. These steamboats could travel against the wind and against river currents, increased the speed and lowered the costs of river travel and shipping, and opened up the South and West to more travel and trade. Furthermore, in the 1830s, railroads were developed. Steampowered locomotives pulled trains of cars. Travel by train was faster than travel by horse and trains carried more cargo than other land transportation did. Thus, railroads could be built where there were no rivers. Before long, railroads spread rapidly across the United States and the miles of railroad tracks increased from 3,000 miles in 1840 to 30,000 in 1860. They were concentrated in the North, made shipping cheaper and faster, linked the East and the West, and helped industry

The development of the railroads was the beginning of a new transport system in America, it connected the east and west, and the communication across the continent grew easier. With the railroads brought new life to deserted towns, people settled along the railways, it was faster for people to travel from one way to the next, it was cheaper, and it led to new industries in lead,coal, and

These new railroads glued the country together thus creating a massive new market and loads of jobs contributing to the industrialisation of the US. Said industrialisation helped along mining and agriculture and brought supplies to the people that worked in said industries

The 1800’s were a period of technological rapid growth and change for America. The Industrial Revolution was in full force, and new advances were made in substantial numbers. One of these breakthroughs was the steam engine powered locomotive, which was first used in 1830. Railroads were built all over the east coast and encouraged travel and commerce among cities east of the Missouri River. By 1850, there were almost 9,000 miles of railroad tracks on the east coast, but very little on the west coast. In 1862, Abraham Lincoln passed the Pacific Railroad Act, which permitted the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads to begin building the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Railroad would begin building in Sacramento, and the

Before railroads were ever implemented into American society, there was another form of primary transportation. In the early 1800s, goods and passengers were carried by ships. For some time, boats on rivers, lakes, and the ocean proved to be adequate enough to convey freight and people where it needed to go. However, these methods of transportation often posed problems of being too slow and too inconvenient. First appearing in the 1830s, the railroad business grew and in 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed, allowing people to think about more efficient settlement across the country. Railroads were the fountainhead of American expansion because they provided for town and city creation and development across the entire United States.

The growing industry of travel in the United States can be somewhat attributed to the massive birth of railroads in the 18th century. Incredibly fast movement of both goods and people along rails has changed how business plan expansion, where people live, how ideas and knowledge move around the continent, as well as how people travel for pleasure. This paper details the development of the locomotive and railroad over the 18th century, describes the societal and economic impact of railroads, and lists the desires reflected within the United States that led to the advent of railroads.

Have you ever thought about the impact the Transcontinental Railroad had on the United States? The railroad changed the United States economically, politically and socially. It brought more culture in, helped us import and export things, and made cities. All in all the railroad changed the United States economically the most because it helped us import and export things, made products cheaper and brought in more culture which means more jobs and money.

…In 1869, after a long, bitter and often terrifying struggle  against Indian attacks, brutal weather, floods, labor shortages, political chicanery, lawlessness and a war, the first transcontinental railroad finally became a reality. Now the way was open for vast expansion and social changes that would make America the industrial giant of the world. ... One of the great engineering feats of history and ... a fascinating chapter in the development of our country.

The technological advancement of transportation through the creation of the railroad system had a revolutionary impact upon America as a nation. Trains was the primary way to travel at this time, but the creation of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 would have greater impacts than anyone could have imagined. This railroad was extremely unique because it was the first time a person could travel to the west coast from the east coast in one trip. It played a big part in unifying the North and South, helped the economy boom, and transformed America into the most industrialized country in the world. The nation received huge benefits from this new railroad system, as industry was able to boom all throughout the nation. A system of interdependence

In addition with the invention of the steam engine came the steam locomotive. As the development of steam engines progressed through the 18th century, various attempts were made to apply them to road and railway us. In 1812 Matthew Murray was the first to build a successful steam locomotive, and it hauled 27 carts of around 95 tonnes at 3 mph. Accompanied with this came Richard Trevithick’s 40 psi steam locomotive, The Penydarren Locomotive, “the world's first ever railway journey that ran 9 miles from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal, South Wales.” This creation lead to many more innovations, which will lead to speedy land travel for goods and products.

The steam engine used in means of travel revolutionized the transportation of goods, as well as the importing and exporting of them. "The steam-powered railroad changed geography and history. When grain merchants transported their goods by horsepower, they could go only so far before the horse consumed more than it could carry." (Gordon) In this aspect, the steam engine in railroads allowed people to import and export their goods on a faster, more reliable, source. Another major effect of the steam engine on society