Transcontinental railroad

men used corrupt methods to get to the top. According to Prairie Farmer, in 1877 the supreme court passed a law in Illinois, which limited freight rates. During this time farmers were being victimized by the Railroad companies and being charged absurd amounts of money in order to use the railroad to transport their products. This circumstance showed how the government became more involved in business interactions. A speech given by William Jennings Bryan, a strong advocate in the populist…

From 1840 to 1860 the total trackage length in the US increase more than nine times. Railroads in the mid 1800s were booming across America, following them was many radical changes. One of the first evident changes was one of independence; train lines diverted traffic from water ways, this in turn made the West in addition to the South more independent from their Northeastern counterparts. Rail lines were important for expansion across the nation, thousands of people used them to move Westward.…

idea in a new country The history of railroads in United States is almost as old as the nation itself. Beginning in the early 1800s, this incredible country of ours prospered into one of the most profitable superpowers in the world and continues to be today. Such prosperity would have been out of reach if it were not for the railroad system. In 1812, Colonel John Stevens first pitched the idea of building a railroad system in the United States. The first railroads ever built included a system…

The Gilded Age. One of the landmark achievements of this period, around which much of the novel also revolves, is the completion of the first transcontinental railway network in the year 1869. Predicated upon this, to a large extent, is the process of industrialisation in the US, which gathered great momentum following the development of the transcontinental railway network. As a result, investments in heavy industries like coal, iron ore etc., also become more commonplace. In an essay titled,…

In the year of 1861, in the midst of America’s Civil War, Congress authorized one of the most ambitious projects that the country had ever envisioned: the construction of a transcontinental railroad. At one end of this immensely long railroad system which was planned to be over 1,700 miles long __ was the Central Pacific Railroad which stretched across the lands of California, the harsh granite walls of the Sierra Nevada and onwards to connect with the Union Pacific in Utah. Through my research…

INTRODUCTIONIn the latter half of the nineteenth century, after the cannon of the Civil War had quieted, the young nation of the United States turned its face westward to the little known reaches of the Great Plains, RockyMountains, and beyond. The Transcontinental Railroad, a 3,000-mile link between the east and the pacific coast was nearing completion as surveys of the federal government were exploring, mapping and bringing back to an eager public audience the wonders of geysers, fogged peaks,…

America from after the Civil War up until the 1890’s is described as being the period of time that was golden on the outside, but if you scratch the surface corrupt underneath. This period is known as the Gilded Age, which is a term invented by a famous American author Mark Twain. During the Gilded Age, America was facing serious social problems. These problems were being masked by the advancements of the new modern nation it was turning into. This era is significant because there is no event…

According to Chinese immigration and the Transcontinental railroad, “Central Pacific offered higher pay to its white workers and provided them with meals and shelter; meanwhile, Chinese laborers received lower wages and were expected to find their own food and tents. Chinese workers often had to live in the underground tunnels they were constructing, and more than one thousand died in accidents and avalanches while laboring in the mountains” (Transcontinental Railroad). Although, Chinese…

whistled, New York fired a hundred-gun salute at City hall, Congregations sang anthems while less religious gathered in saloons to celebrate with whisky. This was the celebrations scene in the United States. Then arrived the first transcontinental Railroad. Now the railroad was from Atlantic to Pacific and the trip across the country could be completed in less than a week. The best utilization of the land made America progressed in right direction. This seems to be a more of a ‘Land’ era too.…

The Transcontinental Railroad had invited many changes to America, especially to international relations. The construction of the Railroad, especially influenced America’s relationship with China. Because the Chinese were willing to work with low wages, they had become one of the key labor forces in the Central Pacific Railroad Company. At one point, Chinese labor increased to as many as 10,000 to 15,000, representing 90% of the workforce (Chang). To encourage more immigration from China, the…