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The Railroads

The Railroads. Section 2. Linking the Nation. 1865 the U.S. had 35,000 miles of railroad track Most lie east of the Mississippi After the Civil War railroads expanded dramatically 1900 U.S. had over 200,000 miles of railroad track. Pacific Railway Act.

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The Railroads

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  1. The Railroads

    Section 2
  2. Linking the Nation 1865 the U.S. had 35,000 miles of railroad track Most lie east of the Mississippi After the Civil War railroads expanded dramatically 1900 U.S. had over 200,000 miles of railroad track
  3. Pacific Railway Act 1862 Lincoln signed Pacific Railway Act Act provided for the construction of a transcontinental railroad by two companies….Union Pacific and Central Pacific Government offered each company land to encourage fast growth Competition grew and they sought to obtain as much public land and money as possible
  4. Union Pacific Grenville Dodge- engineer and director of Union Pacific Laborers faced blizzards in the mountains Scorching heat in the desert Angry Natives all along the way
  5. Union Workers Railroad workers included Civil War Veterans New immigrants from Ireland recruited for the task Frustrated miners and farmers Cooks Adventurers Ex-convicts Union Pacific employed 10,000 Most camped along the rail line ¼ slept three-deep in bunk beds on rolling boarding cars Camp life was rough, dirty, and dangerous Lots of gambling, hard drinking, and fighting
  6. Irish Workers
  7. Rolling Boarding Car
  8. Central Pacific Railroad Theodore Dehone Judah sold stock in Central Pacific Railroad Company to four men Leland Stanford (grocer) Charley Crocker (shop owner) Mark Hopkins (hardware store owner) Collis P. Huntington (hardware store owner) Became known as the “Big Four”
  9. Big Four
  10. Central Pacific Workers Labor shortage in California Central Pacific hired 10,000 Chinese workers All equipment shipped from the east around Cape Horn or over isthmus of Panama
  11. Railroads Spur Growth In 1800s most railroads had been built to promote specific cities and serve local needs Most small lines were unconnected Making a challenge for capitalists to create a single rail transportation system Larger companies start taking over smaller companies
  12. Cornelius Vanderbilt One of the most famous and successful railroad consolidators Former boat captain who built largest steamboat fleet in America Purchased 3 short New York railroads to form New York Central Went from NYC to Buffalo In 4 years he had extended all the way to Chicago, first direct rail system from New York to Chicago 1871 Vanderbilt began construction of New York’s Grand Central terminal
  13. NY’s Grand Central terminal
  14. Time Zone’s 1800s each community set its clock by the sun Local time interfered with train scheduling and threatened passenger safety Variations on time could also result in train collisions 1883 American Railway Association divided the country into 4 time zones in regions where the same time was kept Government ratified change in 1918 Nationwide rail network helped unite Americans in different regions
  15. Time Zone Map
  16. The Land Grant System Railroad lines was too expensive for most private investors To encourage railroad construction the government gave land grants to railroad companies Railroads would in turn sell the land to land settlers, real estate companies, and businesses to raise money to build railroads
  17. Robber Barons Read about Robber Barons on pg. 445-446 Be sure to know Jay Gould Read about The Credit Mobilier Scandal
  18. The Great Northern James J. Hill was not a robber baron He built the Great Northern RR from St. Paul, Minnesota to Everett, Washington He planned carefully and built over good land Operated without government subsidies or land grants Became the most successful transcontinental railroad and the only one that wasn’t eventually forced into bankruptcy
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