Embedded Files
Railroads Lead the Way
Rugged construction gangs labored on the Union Pacific and other railways during the transportation boom of the late 1800s.
The chorus of a favorite song told of the hard work of the tarriers, or drillers:
“And drill, ye tarriers, drill!
Drill, ye tarriers, drill!
For its work all day for sugar in
your tay,
Down behind of the railway and,
Drill, ye tarriers, drill!
And blast!
And fire!”
—Thomas Casey, 1888
Growth of the Rail System
In the decades after the Civil War, railroads became a driving force behind America’s economic growth.
The first transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, was soon followed by others.
By the 1890s, five railway lines crossed the country, and hundreds of smaller lines branched off from them.
The expansion of the railroad system was accompanied by consolidation—the practice of combining separate companies—in the industry. Large railroad companies expanded by buying smaller companies or by driving them out of business. Consolidation made the large companies more efficient. After consolidation, a few powerful individuals known as railroad barons controlled the nation’s rail traffic.
consolidation—the practice of combining separate companies—in the industry
Railroad Barons
The railroad barons were aggressive and competitive. They lived in an age when few laws had been passed to regulate business, and some of their methods were highly questionable. Nevertheless, the railroad barons played an important part in building the nation’s transportation system.
New Yorker Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the first railroad barons, gained control of the New York Central line and then other lines. His railroad empire stretched from New York City to the Great Lakes.
James J. Hill built the Great Northern line between Minnesota and Washington State. Until his death in 1916, Hill continued building and directing his ever-growing business empire.
Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, and two other partners founded the Central Pacific, which connected California and Utah.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
The Central Pacific Railroad began as the dream of engineer Theodore Judah. He sold stock in the new company to four Sacramento merchants: grocer Leland Stanford, shop owner Charles Crocker, and hardware store owners Mark Hopkins and Collis P. Huntington.
The four men became known as “The Big Four” for their role in California’s economic development.
In the early 1860s, these men managed the construction of the Central Pacific railroad. Eventually, they controlled a large railroad network that gave them great wealth and political power. Although some of their methods were questioned, the four business partners and their families donated land and money for the building of parks, churches, and libraries. Their donations either founded or helped fund art museums, including the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino. Leland Stanford and his wife, Jane, donated land and money to create Stanford University.
Leland Stanford became governor of California and later served as a United States senator. Crocker fought against racial prejudice. He criticized unfair treatment of Native Americans and of Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
Crocker believed that if “we deny to the individual, no matter what his creed, his color, or his nationality, the right to justice, which every man possesses . . . there will be no enduring prosperity and [the nation’s] decline will surely follow.”
Crocker gave money to support African American churches in California. He also supported African American schools and colleges in the southern United States.
LELAND STANFORD 1824–1893
CHARLES CROCKER 1822–1888
Railroads Spur the Economy
The fast-growing national rail system created new economic links in the country. The railroads carried raw materials such as iron ore, coal, and timber to factories. They also carried manufactured goods from factories to markets and transported produce from farming areas to the cities.
The national railroad system encouraged the expanding economy in many other ways. At first the demand for iron tracks and locomotives helped the iron mining and processing
industries grow. Around 1880 railroad companies began using steel tracks. Steel is a metal made stronger by adding carbon and other elements to refined iron. The use of steel in railroad tracks stimulated America’s steel industry.
The railroads also helped other industries thrive. The lumber industry, which supplied wood for railway ties, and the coal industry, which provided fuel for locomotives, saw extraordinary growth. In addition, railroad , companies provided work for thousands of people who laid tracks and built stations and for those who manufactured railway cars and equipment.
Standard Time Zones
To make rail service safer and more reliable, in 1883 the American Railway Association agreed to use four time zones for the continental United States: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.
Throughout much of the 1800s, few Americans could agree on the time of day because every community determined its own time by the position of the sun.
When it was noon in New York City, for example, it was11:55 A.M. in Philadelphia and 11:47 in Washington, D.C. Local time interfered with train scheduling and at times even threatened passenger safety. When two trains traveled on the same track, collisions could result from scheduling errors caused by time differences.
Improving the Railroads
Increased use made it necessary for railroads to expand and unify their systems. Railroads were being built across the country, but different lines used rails of different gauges, or widths. As a result, trains of one line could not use another line’s tracks. Many early local lines carried goods for short distances and did not even connect with other lines. The gaps in service between the various lines made long-distance railroad travel slow and inefficient.
As the railroad companies consolidated, railroad barons saw the advantages of being part of a national railroad network. During the late 1880s, almost all companies adopted a standard gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches as the width of the railroad track.
A standard gauge allowed faster shipment of goods at a reduced cost. It was no longer necessary to load and unload goods from one train to another. One train could make the entire journey.
Railroad Technology
Railway transportation also improved with the introduction of new technology.
Four developments were particularly important.
Inventor George Westinghouse devised air brakes that improved the system for stopping trains, making train travel safer.
Janney car couplers, named after inventor Eli H. Janney, made it easier for railroad workers to link cars.
In the early 1870s, Gustavus Swift hired an engineer to develop a refrigerated railroad car. In 1877 Swift shipped the first refrigerated load of fresh meat. The widespread use of refrigeration kept food fresh longer and reduced the risk of food poisoning.
George M. Pullman developed the Pullman sleeping car—a luxury railway car with seats that converted into beds for overnight journeys. Pullman also introduced improved dining cars, raising train travel to a new level of comfort.
lib-pullman-porters-2001016438-article_only (1).pdfCompeting for Customers
As the railroad network continued to grow, the railroad companies competed fiercely with one another to keep old customers and to win new ones. Large railroads offered secret discounts called rebates to their biggest customers. Smaller railroads that could not match these rebates were sometimes forced out of business. Giving discounts to big customers raised freight rates for farmers and other customers who shipped small amounts of goods.
The railroad barons also made secret agreements among themselves, known as pools. They divided the railway business among their companies and set rates for a region. With no other competition in its region, a railroad could charge higher rates and earn greater profits. Although Congress and some states passed laws to regulate the railroads, these laws did little to curb the railroad barons.
How Did Railroads Change America?
The growing railroad network paved the way for American industry to expand into the West. The center of the flour milling industry, for example, shifted westward in the 1800s, moving from the East Coast to Ohio, to Minneapolis, and finally to Kansas City.
Other industries followed the same pattern. As farmers settled the Great Plains, the manufacturing center for agricultural equipment moved from central New York State to Illinois and Wisconsin. Railroads also touched the lives of thousands of Americans. Trains redistributed the population. They carried homesteaders into the Great Plains and the West. Trains also made it easy for people to move from rural areas to the cities.
As you have learned, railroads affected the way Americans thought about time as well. As train travel became more common, people began measuring distances by how many hours the trip would take rather than by the number of miles traveled. The spread of the railroad system led to a national system of time with four time zones.
The railroads opened the entire United States to settlement and economic growth and united the different regions of the country into a single network. At the same time, inventions that revolutionized transportation and communication brought Americans together in new ways.
Page updated
Report abuse