Rise of Railroads INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION SOMETIMES CALLED THE

Rise of Railroads INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (SOMETIMES CALLED THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION) ARRIVES IN THE US AND CHANGES THE WAY WE DO EVERYTHING. RAIL BECOMES ONE OF THE DOMINANT MARKET FORCES IN THE US ECONOMY.

Why transcontinental railroads (TCRR)?

When? First TCRR built during and just after the Civil War between 1862 and 1869. (Union Pacific literally named based on the “Union”) Other major rail routes built by 1893. (Building slowed due to Panic of 1893)

Where? Name From To Notes 3. Transcontinental RR Omaha, Nebraska Sacramento, California 1869 2. Northern Pacific RR Lake Superior Puget Sound 1883 4. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Kansas California 1884 5. Southern Pacific New Orleans San Francisco 1884 1. Duluth, Minnesota Seattle (N of N. Pacific) 1893, James G. Hill’s Great Northern

How?

The Federal government gave railroads all odd-numbered sections within the two outer boundaries of the land grant. In a 20 -mile wide land grant, companies ended up with 10 square miles of land on each side of the track for every mile of track on the ground. The federal government retained most of the rest. (Actually, the Federal government granted one or two square miles of land per township to states in order to help fund state colleges. Hence the term "land grant colleges. ")

Transcontinental—

The Wedding of the Rails Engines from the two companies, the Union Pacific (right) and the Central Pacific (left), met at Promontory Summit, Utah, on 10 May 1869 to commemorate the completion of the transcontinental railroad with the driving of the golden spike. Shaking hands in the center are Samuel S. Montague (left), chief engineer of the Central Pacific, and Grenville M. Dodge (right), chief engineer of the Union Pacific. Estimates of the number of people in attendance vary from five hundred to three thousand, but photographs suggest five to six hundred.

V A N D E R B I L T owner New York Central genius was to expand & integrate existing rail lines with new western lines offer affordable, reliable service he earned a fortune founder of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee Other Notable Railroad Tycoons John Edgar Thomson—Pennsylvania RR John W. Garrett—Baltimore & Ohio (yes, like in Monopoly)

Improvements to RR use of steel rails—safer, cheaper standard gauge (width) track—no longer necessary to switch trains Westinghouse air brake Pullman Palace Cars (upper class rail cars) Safety devices—telegraph, double-tracking, block signal

Effects of RR Growth US geographically united Raw materials & finished goods travel easily to market Led to further industrialization—new markets & Helped build new steel industry (need for rails) Helped mining & agriculture in the west More immigration (rr companies needed people to sell their land grants too—this is the Gilded Age!) Creation of time zones—get everyone on one schedule, reduce conflicts & accidents (2 trains on same track) Avenue for great wealth

“With great power comes great responsibility. ” Spiderman knows this, but the railroad tycoons did not follow it…they took advantage of the power that money & control over transportation had over the government & people of the US Would over value their stock by lying about their assets & profits Public interest was secondary to interests of the owners Used bribery to buy/influence judges and congressmen ◦ Eventually the leaders of the railroads began cooperating with each other in “pools” They agree to divide business in an and share the profits ◦ This leads to monopoly—where one (or few) companies control an entire industry. Considered bad in the US because it often leads to corrupt practices due to a lack of competition

The Government Steps In… People were fed up with corruption & mistreatment by rr—states began regulating them, of course the rr did not like this & sued them Wabash vs. Illinois—Supreme Court case decision stating that states do NOT have the right to regulate interstate commerce (commerce between the states). Since the rr went through multiple states, only the federal government could regulate them

Federal government’s response Interstate Commerce Act (1887) ◦ ◦ Prohibits rebates & pools Requires railroads to publish rates Short hauls have to be cheaper than long hauls on same line Set up Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) as a regulatory administration that will enforce legislation ◦ Effect—stabilized the rr economic system ◦ Significance— 1 st attempt to regulate business in favor of people

The Economy is Growing, Growing Why? Liquid capital (meaning money that you can spend now & freely, as opposed to money that is tied up in investments such as stock, property, etc. ) People with lots of money who could/would risk part to become entrepreneurs (# millionaires grew) Natural resources could be easily accessed & used (coal, oil, iron) Immigration=large amounts of unskilled labor=cheap labor

American inventiveness ◦ Hundreds of thousands of new patents ◦ Business tools like cash register, stock ticker & typewriter, refrigerator rail car Alexander Graham Bell ◦ Telephone led to far-reaching communications network Thomas A. Edison (the “wizard of Menlo Park”) ◦ Light bulb, phonograph, mimeograph, Dictaphone, moving picture (movies) Effects of new technologies ◦ Women’s roles change: some women (esp those in poverty) drawn out of home to connect phone lines, become secretaries, etc. Most working women were young women who may be married, but usually without children. ◦ New city life with electric lights change even the most basic of habits: sleep. The ability to easily light a home allowed people to stay up late, average amount of sleep went down…. =(