The Transcontinental Railroad
The Transcontinental Railroad was a legendary Civil Engineering feat that created an entirely new way of settlement and trade in the West that had hardly been imagined. The Railroad changed the life of the travelers and settlers in America. A trip from the East Coast to the West Coast that used to take six months then took a mere seven days. Without the intelligence of great men like Theodore Judah and Grenville Dodge, who were Chief Engineers of the Railroad, the thousands of American and Chinese workers, and generous land grants from The Government, a feat as grand as the Transcontinental Railroad could never have been accomplished. In this review, I will be assessing four articles by Jeff Brown, James Ronda, …show more content…
Ronda, is the H.G. Barnard Professor of West American History at the University of Tulsa, and a past President of the Western History Association. Ronda has also worked as an on-camera adviser for C-SPAN, BBC, and PBS, and was recently named to serve on the Advisory Committee of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. In his article, “The West the Railroads Made,” Professor Ronda discusses the positive impacts the railroad had on the people of The West. From the small towns, to the big cities, The Transcontinental Railroad opened up great opportunities. Ronda states, “The presence and power of the railroad could be seen on every farm and ranch, in every booming western city and sleepy tank town, and in the lives of natives and countless newcomers.” He does a fantastic job of mentioning how the railroad station or depot, was the small town of the West’s connection to the rest of America. The author mentions many times that the railroad depot of a town was its gate to everything outside of the town, if someone brought harvested grain or other produced items from the farm to town, they would bring all of it through the …show more content…
In his feature, “Chinese Americans and the Transcontinental Railroad,” he is representing the Chinese laborers as a significant contribution to the Railroad. When Chin mentions the white men of the railroad like Charles Crocker, Chief Contractor of the Central pacific, he is talking in an almost negative way about them. The author begins the article in a strategic way, instead of going straight into how important the Chinese Americans were and how they were treated as less than the white men, he tells of why there was a need for willing and tough workers like the Chinamen. Chin states that, “In building train tracks over mountains, the important consideration is that whatever route is built must never exceed a certain steepness, too steep a grade… can be
The Transcontinental Railroad was a legendary Civil Engineering feat that created an entirely new way of settlement and trade in the West that had hardly been imagined. The Railroad changed the life of the travelers and settlers in America. A trip from the East Coast to the West Coast that used to take six months then took a mere seven days. Without the intelligence of great men like Theodore Judah and Grenville Dodge, who were Chief Engineers of the Railroad, the thousands of American and Chinese workers, and generous land grants from The Government, a feat as grand as the Transcontinental Railroad could never have been accomplished. In this review, I will be assessing four articles by Jeff Brown, James Ronda, …show more content…
Ronda, is the H.G. Barnard Professor of West American History at the University of Tulsa, and a past President of the Western History Association. Ronda has also worked as an on-camera adviser for C-SPAN, BBC, and PBS, and was recently named to serve on the Advisory Committee of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. In his article, “The West the Railroads Made,” Professor Ronda discusses the positive impacts the railroad had on the people of The West. From the small towns, to the big cities, The Transcontinental Railroad opened up great opportunities. Ronda states, “The presence and power of the railroad could be seen on every farm and ranch, in every booming western city and sleepy tank town, and in the lives of natives and countless newcomers.” He does a fantastic job of mentioning how the railroad station or depot, was the small town of the West’s connection to the rest of America. The author mentions many times that the railroad depot of a town was its gate to everything outside of the town, if someone brought harvested grain or other produced items from the farm to town, they would bring all of it through the …show more content…
In his feature, “Chinese Americans and the Transcontinental Railroad,” he is representing the Chinese laborers as a significant contribution to the Railroad. When Chin mentions the white men of the railroad like Charles Crocker, Chief Contractor of the Central pacific, he is talking in an almost negative way about them. The author begins the article in a strategic way, instead of going straight into how important the Chinese Americans were and how they were treated as less than the white men, he tells of why there was a need for willing and tough workers like the Chinamen. Chin states that, “In building train tracks over mountains, the important consideration is that whatever route is built must never exceed a certain steepness, too steep a grade… can be