Industrialization in the United States

The Railroad Industry: Linking the Nation(1860s-1890s)

The Railroad Industry – The MAIN IDEA!

Railroads were rapidly constructed at the end of the Civil War (1865)…

BUT, in order to make this happen, capital investment was necessary…– Railroad companies needed

land as well (land grants)

However, huge profits led to corruption.

1. Linking the Nation

MAIN IDEA: After the Civil War, the rapid construction of railroads accelerated the nation’s industrialization and linked the country together.

2. “Robber Barons”

MAIN IDEA: The government helped finance railroad construction by providing land grants, but this system also led to corruption.

How did Americans in the 1850s get from the East Coast to the West Coast? Why would they want to?

Building a National Network – From the Beginning…

1862, the Pacific Railway Act – aka “An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line

from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes”

Incentives, Incentives, Incentives…

Each company received…– $16,000 per mile built over an easy grade– $32,000 per mile in the high plains– $48,000 per mile in the mountains.

Payment was in the form of government bonds…

Congress provided additional assistance in the form of land grants of federal/public lands!

How did these incentives affect the “transcontinental” project?

Building the Transcontinental Railroad

Union Pacific – Grenville Dodge – Funded by Thomas C. Durant– Would work WEST from Omaha,

Nebraska…

Central Pacific – Theodore Judah– Funded by the “Big Four” – Would work EAST from Sacramento,

California

“Robber Barons” exploited the government’s generous contributions

AMC's Hell on Wheels - Thomas C. Durant

Construction and Labor

Union Pacific used Civil War Vets and Irish Immigrants…

Central Pacific used Chinese immigrants…

Labor was tedious, dangerous, unforgiving; often resulted in injury or death.

The Last Spike!

In the end, the Union Pacific ended up “winning”– laid nearly 1,100 miles

to the Central Pacific’s 700 miles!

Why do you think this was?

May 1869, Central Pacific and Union Pacific met in Promontory, Utah…

RAILROADS SPUR OTHER INDUSTRIES

The rapid growth of the railroad industry influenced the iron, coal, steel and lumber businesses as they tried to keep up with the railroads demand for materials… – Why would this be?

Many of today’s major cities owe their legacy to the railroad…– Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and

Seattle!

Cornelius Vanderbilt– New York to Chicago

RAILROAD AND TIME

Before the 1880s, each community operated on its own time…– Clocks were set by the sun’s

position at noon (“God’s Time”)– Problems? I think so.

No standard time reference!

The railroad industry used its own standard time based on the local time of its headquarters or most important terminus…

Charles Dowd Creates Time Zones

In 1869, to remedy this problem, Dowd proposed dividing the earth into 24 time zones.

The U.S. would be divided into 4 zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific.

1883, “The Day of Two Noons”

1884 – International Conference adopts zones!

THE UNITED STATES IS DIVIDED INTO 4 TIME ZONES

Back to the Union Pacific Railroad Company, shall we?

Stockholders of Union Pacific Railroad (mainly Durant) formed a construction company in 1864…– Crédit Mobilier of America– Stockholders then gave

contracts to the company to lay track at 3 times the actual costs and pocketed the difference!

They donated shares of the stock to 20 Republican members of Congress in 1867

Scandal went public in 1872

The Great Northern Railway

1893, James J. Hill breaks the “Robber Baron” stereotype with the Great Northern Railway...

Completely privately funded, no federal land grants and was actually profitable!

*How did railroads change American society?*

*How did they “link the nation?”*