Chapter 9, Section 2

IMPACT OF RAILROADS

RAILROADS LINK THE NATION• Railroad boom

• 1865 – 35,000 miles of track in the US

• 1900 – over 200,000 miles

• 1862 Pacific Railway Act• Abraham Lincoln

• Transcontinental Railroad

• Union Pacific and Central Pacific

UNION PACIFIC• Omaha, NE in 1865

• Grenville Dodge

• Obstacles

• Blizzards

• Deserts

• Indian attacks

• Veterans, Irish immigrants, ex-convicts, ex-miners

CENTRAL PACIFIC• California, 1863

• Judah sold to “Big Four”

• 4 Sacramento merchants (Stanford!)

• Obstacles

• Shipped from the East

• Not enough workers

• Hired 10,000 Chinese

1869 IN UTAH!

• Increased markets for products

• stimulated economy by buying home resources

CORNELIUS VANDERBILT

• Largest steamboat fleet

• Bought NY rails - linked them together

• New York Grand Central Terminal

• Vanderbilt

NEED FOR A NATIONAL SYSTEM• Before 1880s each town set clocks by the sun

• Confusing and dangerous for train scheduling

• 1883, American Railway Association created four time zones

• Faster and more efficient

LAND GRANTS• Federal govt.

• Land to railroads

• Encouraged construction

• RR companies sold to settlers

• Money for material

ROBBER BARONS

• Jay Gould

• “Insider trading”

• Use to own RR’s

• Manipulated stock prices

• Bribery

• More land grants from Congress = more money from land

CREDIT MOBILIER SCANDAL• Construction company

• Union Pacific owners, some Congress

• Signed contract with themselves, over charged Union Pacific

• Congressmen bought shares below market value – not okay

• leaked out to press

THE GREAT NORTHERN

• James J. Hill

• Low fares to homestead settlers along the route

• Products demanded in China

• East to Washington, to Asia

• Extra cash for exporting

• Successful without land grants