Essay on The Railroad Boom

“In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act into law. The act said that there were two main railroad lines. The Central Pacific Railroad would come from California and the Union Pacific Railroad would come from the Midwest. The two railroads would meet somewhere in the middle.”(Ducksters). Seven years later the Transcontinental Railroad is finished and you can now travel across the country with ease. The Transcontinental Railroad has impacted positive Westward expansion because The Transcontinental Railroad helped people move west and create jobs, The Transcontinental Railroad was the cheapest and fastest way to get westward, and The Transcontinental Railroad set the foundation for moving westward in the United States.

By the middle of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution was changing the face and culture of the United States. Demand for raw materials and new inventions was increasing. From 1800-1850, territories claimed by the United States had grown to stretch from the East Coast to the West Coast. The spirit of “Manifest Destiny”, the California Gold Rush, and the promise of rich new land, ripe with raw materials and opportunity drew settlers ever westward. Following the invention of the steam engine, trains were becoming very important to the expansion of civilization and its infrastructure. Trains and the railroads they ran on soon became the lifeblood of industrialized economic development across the country. Public and private partnerships were formed with railroad companies to provide them with vast amounts of investment funding. Within a few decades, the railroad companies and their transcontinental railroads ushered in the Gilded Age and changed American society forever.

With the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, it boosted the US economy, opened rich farmland to people, and reduced shipping and transportation time. Although the railroad was a large investment for the US it made up for

America’s Transcontinental Railroad Since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has been caught in the middle of being frightened by the unknown and having an intense desire to explore and conquer it. The magnetic draws of potential land, wealth, and happiness have been perpetually found in juxtaposition against the possibilities of exotic

The article, “Creating the System: Railroads and the Modern Corporation”, informs us all about the development of the transcontinental railroad and how it helped drive the nation west and also transformed western North America into a economy that had many opportunities. The railroads have always interested me when it comes to this period of time. What I learned from the reading that I didn’t know before was that the Western railroads were primary carriers of grain, other agricultural produce, livestock, coal, lumber and minerals. Also seeing the prices that the farmers shipped their products for, and what they paid for the freights rates was very interesting. Overall, if the railroads wouldn’t have been built in a time when there was so little

Between 1865 and 1920, industrialization caused significant changes in many people’s lives. First, the development of a new railroad system help settle the west and made it more accessible to people. Second, public transit systems in big cities provided an outlet from congested cities. Last, the discovery of a

1) OUTLINE: I. Topic sentence. Manifest destiny and westward expansion was a tremendous key component to the growth of the nation economically because of the impact it had on native americans, women empowerment, and expanding the population of the country. II. Significance of topic. Americans looked

Socially these railroads would make the large country of America seem smaller because you could now get across the country in much less time by just taking a train from point A to point B.

Similar to the light bulb’s legacy of ideas, the transcontinental railroad paved the way for new transportation. “The transcontinental railroad act is the first step in creating a continental common market.” This quote by, Charles R. Morris, defines the wide-spread uprising in the American Economy after establishing a railroad that

The Transcontinental railroad was the most prolific tool for United States western expansion and acted as jet fuel to the fire of the United States economy. The railroad revolutionized transportation of goods and the freedom that Americans now had to travel from coast-to-coast.

The TransContinental Railroad “If any act symbolized the taming of the Northwest frontier, it was the driving of the final spike to complete the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.”1 The first railroad west of the Mississippi River was opened on December 23, 1852. Five miles long, the track ran from St. Louis to Cheltanham, Missouri. Twenty-five years prior, there were no railroads in the United States; twenty-five years later, railroads joined the east and west coasts from New York to San Francisco.2

 Negative and Positive Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad Jeff Neukirch History 101 American History to 1877 Dr. Kimberly Weathers 26 June 2012 The Impacts of the Transcontinental Railroad On May 10, 1869 as the “Last Spike” struck by Leland Stanford now connected the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads across the United States at Promontory Summit

The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most ambitious engineering projects, economic stimulants, and efficient methods of transportation in the early United States. If completed, the United States would be truly be united from east to west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Transcontinental Railroad helped develop new opportunities for many aspects of American life.

The Transcontinental Railroad and Westward Expansion Thesis: The transcontinental railroad greatly increased Westward expansion in the United States of America during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The history of the United States has been influenced by England in many ways. In the second half of the 1800's, the railroad, which was invented in England, had a major effect on Western expansion in the United States. "Railroads were born in England, a country with dense populations, short distances between cities, and large financial resources. In America there were different circumstances, a sparse population in a huge country, large stretches between cities, and only the smallest amounts of money." Romantics dreamed of the discoveries of wild Indians, scouts and hunters, and, of course, gold. Gold had been a desired find throughout the exploration of America. The California Gold Rush of 1849 again created much excitement about the search for gold. The Pacific Railroads were founded when the Civil War was in progress. Until the war was over, the transcontinental railroad was a giant enterprise stalled by much bickering between a reluctant Congress and the Army, who had clamored for it (Cooke 254). If it had been left to the government, it would have taken

Railroads have been an important part of America’s history. These railroads had a major role in the settlement of the West. The most important railroad in American history is the transcontinental railroad. The transcontinental railroad impacted western settlement by bringing in immigrants, aiding travel to the frontier, and changing people