Train Industry In The 20th Century

Prompt: In what ways did developments in transportation bring about economic and social change in the United States in the period 1820-1860?

railroad has allowed the rail industry to provide a more tailored service to its customers. It has also

American Experience: Transcontinental Railroad. The railroad was a very big accomplishment in America's history. Transcontinental Railroad showed more then anything America's persistence, intellectual advancement, and above all else, Courage. This accomplishment came with many hardships and many sacrifices as well as achievements. While this accomplishment shows the good traits of America like drive and courage, It also reveled the darker traits of America, like betrayal, inequality, and most of all, greed. This paper will go over, How the Transcontinental Railroad was set into motion, the construction of the railroad and how it was used.

Along with this, another major milestone was accomplished, the first transcontinental railroad was established. The development of the transcontinental railroad would bring huge economical growth to the U.S, making it the highway of nations (Henretta, pg. 476). This railroad would prove to be huge, as it would allow for easy transportation of resources, personnel and other goods cross country. San Francisco, which at this point in time was the only major city on the West coast, would benefit huge from the transcontinental railroad. Handling $7.4 million in imports in the 1860’s they would see an increase to $49 million by 1890 (Henretta, pg. 476.) Although the transcontinental railroad helped bring huge economical growth, railroad companies also faced a problem. In 1877 The Great Railroad strike took place, crippling and bringing rail travel to a halt when railroad workers walked off the job, causing $40 million in damage and killing over fifty people (Henretta, pg. 529). During this time period the U.S also looked towards incorporating the West, through mining, railroad construction, and the hunting of bison. Prospering at first, ranchers and farmers of the Western pains would soon face devastating blizzards and drought, making the Central and Northeastern parts of the U.S the agricultural stronghold for America (Henretta, pg.

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.

One component of the shift from agrarian to industrial in American society in the late 19th century was the advent of the railroad industry. Due to Manifest Destiny, Americans believed it was their God-given right to expand west, and the inexpensive development of steel that Henry Bessemer brought a need for an industrial economy in order to build railroad tracks that could span the continent. This is what allowed three companies in the 1860’s, Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Western Pacific, to build the first ever Transcontinental Railroad that reached from the Missouri River to the San Francisco Bay. This led to more and more people fulfilling the dream of moving west, adding to the already massive demand, and creating the need for more

With the completion of the Transcontinental railway in 1869, it connected the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways in Promontory, Utah. This connection made travel from east to west much easier than the horse and stagecoach or covered wagon of days past. With the connection of rail, came luxury and convenience of travel, as well as the movement of goods out west. Steam engines were a major part of the Industrial Revolution, and steam locomotives made travel from place to place so incredibly easy compared to the traditional horse and buggy, but as with everything else, technology advanced and the steel skinned, steam breathing dinosaurs that carved the way for many across the country, has met the end of the line with the advent of the diesel engine and electric streetcars essecently being combined to make diesel-electric locomotives most famously made by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division.

. It is very possible that rail is currently permitting something of awakening. Countries that have not traditionally had a culture of rail transit, and regions where there has been a history of underinvestment, are changing course with power. Fantasying how rail adventures might be competed in 2050 and the coming years will help shape the rising role that rail will play in our future.

Railroads were the linchpin in the new industrialized economy. The railroad industry enabled raw materials, finished products, food, and people to travel cross-country in a matter of days, as opposed to the months or years that it took just prior to the Civil War. By the end of the war, the United States boasted some 35,000 miles of track, mostly in the industrialized North. By the turn of the century, that number had jumped to almost 200,000 miles, linking the North, South, and West. With these railroads making travel easier, millions of rural Americans flocked to the cities, and by 1900, nearly 40 percent of the population lived in urban areas.

Before the railroad industry, America was growing economically but industrialisation in America was a slow. During this time America did have factories but there were no factories for mass scale production but only small scale, why? Simply because to produce things of a large scale they would need raw material transported to the factory and they would also need transportation to send the products to the market, this is why industrialisation was slow in America .The initial solution to this problem would be the steam boat and the newly forms railroad would be all be a more efficient but will be a second means

Just before the turn of the century, the United States had over 1/3rd of all the train tracks in the world. This allowed people, for the first time, to be able to move reliably, affordably and timely across large areas. The importance of trains as a mode of transportation is often overshadowed because of the massive industrial and economic significance of a machine that could move products and supplies efficiently, but the steam engine revolutionized communication and also sparked rapid western expansion. Steam engines also allowed people to move out of the cities, as people were able for the first time to commute reliably and

The railroads right away walked away from unprofitable passenger business, and concentrated on freight as their core business activity; this side of the business was the most profitable and there was not too much competition. Rail traffic started growing by flows of coal, grain, and ores, indeed 43% of all traffic was accounted for by coal shipments in 2003. Larger capacity cars were brought into service. Although general freight produced higher revenues per ton it was more subject to competition, and therefore received less attention. (Slack)

The railroad system development was a major contribution to items being sold nationally. Merchandise went from being ordered and delivered locally to mail orders coming in and merchandise being delivered

Railroads are principally roads in which trains of freight and passenger cars, drawn by locomotives, travel on tracks formed by pairs of parallel metal rails. The term “railroad” is often extended to include the rolling stock, or cars and locomotives, and the land, buildings, and equipment owned or operated in conjunction with the railroad lines.

This paper will focus on the rail transportation in north east region of United States. In United States primary rail transportation consists of freight shipment from one place to another. Passenger service, which was once upon a time a large and vital part of passenger transportation network, has now a limited role in the transportation (Hilton, 1980).This patterns