II. The Railroads
• Major railroads, including the transcontinental
railroad, were constructed rapidly after the Civil
War ended.
• Railroads required massive capital investment and
government land grants
• The potential profits led to some corruption as well
Linking the Nation
• How did the
transcontinental railroad
transform the West?
Linking the Nation
1865: U.S. had 35,000
miles of railroad tracks
1900: 200,000 miles of tracks
A Network Of Rails
• Early RR lines were short and
served local communities.
• Different lines used different
gauges- or widths
o In 1886 RR’s adopted the
North’s gauges.
• Once track was standardized
the RR formed a network- or
system of connected lines all
across the country.
Different Gauges
New and
Improved!
• 1864 George Westinghouse
invented the air brake.
o Allowed engineer to stop all rail cars at once.
o Much Safer!
New and Improved!
• 1864 George Pullman
invented the sleeping
car.
o Eventually they added
bathrooms and dining cars as
well.
Stop and Think
• What was the significance of Railroad gauges
being the same?
• List and explain 3 improvements made to trains
during the late 1800s.
Pacific Railway Act
• 1862 Lincoln signed
Pacific Railway Act
railroad boom began
• Gave two companies
permission to build the
railroad
o Union Pacific
o Central Pacific
• Offered each
company land along
the right-of-way
Union Pacific
• Engineer Greenville Dodge
(Union Pacific)
o Pushed westward from Omaha, Nebraska
in 1865
o Laborers faced blizzards
o Heat in the desert
o Angry Native Americans
o Labor
o Money and engineering problem
• Union Pacific workers
o Civil War veterans
o Irish immigrants
• Height of project Union
Pacific employed
10,000 workers
Central Pacific
• Engineer Theodore
Judah (Central Pacific)
• Sold stock to
Sacramento merchants
• Leland Stanford (one of
the Big Four)
o
o
o
o
Made a fortune
Became governor of California
Served as U.S. senator
Founded Stanford University
• Hired 10,000 Chinese
workers
• Paid $1.00 a day
The Transcontinental
Railroad
• All equipment was
shipped from the East
• Traveled around Cape
Horn (South America)
• Overland Isthmus of
Panama
The Transcontinental
Railroad
• Completed in 4 years
o Each mile of track required 400
rails
o Each rail required 10 spikes
• Central pacific laid 688
miles of track
• Union Pacific 1,086
miles of track
• Promontory Summit,
Utah two were joined
o Used silver and gold spikes
Railroads Spur Growth
• Transcontinental first of
many lines
• Railroads increased the
size of markets for
products
• Spent huge amounts on
steel, coal, timber
• Large connected with
small to integrate railroad
systems
• Integrate- to combine
two previously separate
things
Railroads Spur Growth
• Southern states improved
transportation
• New industries like tourism
to Florida
• Freight prices dropped by
half from 1860 – 1900
• Railroads unified the
nation’s clocks
• Created 4 time zones
• Time zone – geographic
region in which standard
time is kept
Linking the Nation
• How did the transcontinental
railroad help unite the nation?
Robber Barons
• How did government grants to
build railroads result in largescale corruption?
Robber Barons
• Investors could not
raise all the money the
railroad needed
o Investors – one who puts
money into a company in
order to gain a financial
reward
• Federal government
gave land grants
o Land Grants – a grant of land
by the federal government,
especially for roads, railroads,
or agricultural colleges
Robber Barons
• Companies sold the
land to raise money
• Bribery occurred
because government
helped to fund the
railroads
• Cornelius Vanderbilt
and Jay Gould were
accused of swindling
The Credit Mobilier
Scandal
• Corruption became
public in 1871
• Credit Mobilier
construction company set
up by several stockholders
• Oakes Ames member of
Congress
• Investors signed
overpriced contracts with
themselves
• Union Pacific paid inflated
bills
• Ames sold other members
of Congress share below
market price
The Credit Mobilier
Scandal
• 1872 New York Sun listed
all members of Congress
who bought shares
• Investigation implicated
several politicians
• Including representative
James Garfield (later
becomes president) and
sitting Vice President
Schuyler Colfax
• Neither criminal or civil
charges were filed
The Great Northern
Railroad
• Robber Baron- term
used to describe
industrialists who grew
wealthy unethically
• James J Hill built the
Great Northern from
o
o
o
o
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Washington
With no federal grants
The Great Northern
Railroad
• Identified goods that
were in demand in
China (shipped from
Washington)
• Railroad efficiently
shipped goods East
and West
• Became the most
successful
• One of few not
eventually forced into
bankruptcy
Robber Barons
• Why did the Robber Barons
bribe people in Congress?
Robber Barons
• They wanted Congress to
give them more federal
land grants