With railroads, people can travel across the country in a much faster rate and easier fashion (class lecture). Right before the Civil War, railroads already covered three-fourths of the American map with thirty thousand miles of railroad tracks (301). After the Civil War in the Gilded Age, railroads were becoming much more efficient and cheaper for the regular middle class people (class lecture). Transportation was innovated with the use of natural resources such as coal, oil, and iron (520). In a way, transportation made the nation bigger in terms of expansion, but it also made the nation smaller in a way that people can travel far distances in a much faster
With railroads, people can travel across the country in a much faster rate and easier fashion (class lecture). Right before the Civil War, railroads already covered three-fourths of the American map with thirty thousand miles of railroad tracks (301). After the Civil War in the Gilded Age, railroads were becoming much more efficient and cheaper for the regular middle class people (class lecture). Transportation was innovated with the use of natural resources such as coal, oil, and iron (520). In a way, transportation made the nation bigger in terms of expansion, but it also made the nation smaller in a way that people can travel far distances in a much faster