The age of railroads
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Transcript of The age of railroads
The Age of Railroads
Ch. 6 Section 2
First Transcontinental Railroad
The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 in Promontory, Utah wher they drove in a golden spike to mark the meeting of two rail lines
The Harsh Reality of Railroad Workers
• Central Pacific hired thousands of Chinese immigrants
• Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants and desperate, out-of-work civil war veterans
• Workers laid track in treacherous terrain, suffered attacks from Native Americans, and faced disease and accidents– 1888 statistics show over 2,000 dead and more
than 20,000 injured
Railroad Time
• Noon was considered to be whenever the sun was directly overhead (different everywhere)
• A solution was proposed by Professor C.F. Dowd– Divide the earth’s surface
into 24 time zones– US had 4 time zones
Effects of Rapid
Growth of Railroads
Corruption: Credit Mobilier company stockholders gave
company a contract to lay track at 3X the price and
pocketed the profitsGrowth of Towns and Cities: Pullman created a town specifically for his employees in Illinois
Regulation of Industry: The Grange (farmer’s org) pressed for laws to regulate railroads for the benefit of farmers- Munn v. Illinois
Nationwide Market: products could be shipped anywhere in the country, so some cities began to
specialize in one product (ex: Chicago stockyards)
Consolidation of Railroads: Corporate abuses, mismanagement, and overbuilding pushed
many railroads to bankruptcy leading to a major economic collapse in 1893 (panic of 1893). J.P.
Morgan and Co reorganized railroads.