The Spirit Of The Pony Express

Business growth on both sides of the country was expedited by a new form of cheap distribution into profitable, expanding markets. Easy transportation facilitated the concept of business travel and expansion on an unprecedented scale. However, some of the largest impacts of the Transcontinental Railroad can be seen through the cross­country exchange of ideas. Before the railroad existed, the only fast exchange of information was written through the pony express. The Transcontinental Railroad created an outlet of communicating new ideas and information in person. A smooth and swift cross­country exchange of people and ideas not only made America more infrastructurally sophisticated ­­ it acted as a foundation for the Western United States to grow from very little to the political, social, economic, and technological center that it is today.

Since the first Transatlantic telegraph cable was laid out in 1858, the world as we know has continued to shrink (Mercer, 2006, p.17). Suddenly people could communicate around the world almost instantly, sharing information, ideas, or just greetings. This trend continued when Alexander Graham

The term "Pony Express" recieved its' name because mail was delivered by horses traveling for hundreds of miles. Only 180 men were hired for this very important job. The route of the Pony Express stretched from Missouri to California. Obstacles encountered were the drastic changes of weather. Sandy deserts, ridgid mountains, and grassy plains were few types of the different landscapes. Nearly

There are two water routes to California. A 17,000 mile route around the South America and Cape Horn took 5 to 7 months.

They made the pony express for faster communications. During the express, the men in the pony express rode a horse to send mail. At one point , there was around 100 stations of the pony express. They used 400 to 500 horses that around 80 men would ride. The pony express service lasted around 19 months. It ended in October 24, 1861. The men rode 250 miles in a day. An honorable pony express rider was Buffalo Bill.

It was the same with the omnibus that was created in 1826, because it moved slowly and didn’t hold many people. The steam railroad was another form of transportation that was introduced in 1835 and it was a better form of transportation because it moved quicker and could hold many more passengers, but it was also expensive and didn’t always take the people to where they wanted to go because it didn’t stop very often, and only went one route.

The limit for the men in the Pony Express had to be light, fit, and experienced. The Pony Express gave these riders to ride, the very best, and fastest horses that money could afford and buy. As little time past by, the Pony Express grew exceedingly. The Pony Express soon had over than 100 stations, 80 riders, and somewhere between 400 and 500 horses. Although that the express route was extremely hazardous and with Native Americans who did not approve of theses riders crossing across their lands and tried to stop them, not one mail was lost except only one mail delivery lost.

There was so many thing to get a person around the place but when the y can out with the steam boats and the R&R train there was a different way of getting to place to place. Back then there was so many thinning that was happening like cotton and rail road so they needed to find people to get it places so they made the train and steam boat. Transportation was a big deal back then likes who is going to take my things and stuff, and who was going to make it here. They all needed to make it place so someone in the South would use the steam boat to where they need to go and if they can’t make it that far they would have getting the train and get there place. People back then need transportation and they got two big ones.

The amount of materials was also immense. Rails, railroad ties, lumber, and provisions needed to be hauled over five hundred miles to get to where it needed to be. The route had no natural provisions, so food and water needed to be hauled from 150 miles away to get to construction crews. In order to understand what it means to build this railroad, one must understand all the obstacles railroad companies and workers had to overcome. In Walt Winter’s The First Transcontinental Railroad, Enid Johnson says,

The telegraph needed to take advantage of the land rights railroads obtained through the government and the railroads needed the ability to communicate instantaneously to coordinate arrival and departure times. Before the telegraph, trains running in the opposite or same direction would often run into each other. According to Nonnenmacher, the railroad had two options, to double-tracking the U.S. rail system which estimated to cost $957 million or to use Western Union at $123 million. Therefore, telegraph stations would often be at the train station. At this time, small towns would form in close proximity to a train.

Also the pay of the rider way increased from the distance that the rider had rode. So this means that Buffalo Bill can do what he loves to do all day and get payed more and more. According to the article, " It was announced that the further a man rode the better would be his pay." And since he likes to ride he could take the longest trip and complete it within fewer days and within longer miles and get payed four times his original

The Pony Express was an extremely important event in history for three profoundly reasons. All together, it helped the farther east states to keep in contact with the West with all the news of what was happening, important documents, and sometimes small packages and family letters that were being sent from different states. It helped for new and more improved ideas of how could the spreading of news could be spread faster and safer.

“Why don’t you write, your rascals?” was the first phrase sent over the telegraph towards the end of the Industrial Revolution(Allen). During the Industrial Revolution speed and efficiency became a high priority. Factories and the mass production of goods was booming thus making people move to the cities from the rural areas. This rural-to-urban migration fostered a cultural shift. With the invention of the telegraph, by Baron Schilling in 1832, mass communication spurred, a faster, easier more efficient mode of communication thus creating a bridge to modern day telecommunication. From 1760 to 1840 the Industrial Revolution led to the increase of communication.

Airmail is one of the most efficient methods to deliver mail in the present and it is largely inconceivable for mail to travel through other mediums as long as it needs to do so efficiently. Airmail can be considered to be a technological breakthrough, given that it provided people with the chance to communicate more rapidly and that it actually played an important role in shaping history in particular situations. From the very first moment when people realized that they could use homing pigeons as a means to deliver mail society has started to progress more efficiently, taking into account that correspondence through rapid means also meant that innovative thinking would be shared effectively.

It is difficult to imagine for the modern man, but there was once a time when messages and information had to be delivered by hand, horseback or by vehicle. This was a very big problem in a world that was expanding and evolving rapidly and was full of growing local and international turmoil. The more the world began to expand, the harder it became to relay messages and information, and the