Railroads are the finest technology that could have ever been designed in the nineteenth century in America. Once railroads were invented it gave Americans a wide range of jobs. They were able to travel long distance with cutting near ninety percent of the travel time. Americans were also able to transport mail and goods across the states. Railroad unions rapidly grew across America; by the time civil war started in 1861 the United States had about 30,000 miles of rail net. As railroad unions spread across the states they soon found their selves in competition with canals. However, railroads were able to be built in locations that canals could not get access to; which gave railroads even more business. The railroad had a rapid expansion that had an effect on both political and economic development throughout the states; which were good and bad. However, with the railroads intensifying so quickly it made things a lot easier for personal and business usage to travel and ship goods. …show more content…
Railroad companies had a wide-ranging of jobs. Railroad employees ranged from uneducated freight handlers to the train engineers to those who built and restored the tracks. Though, most engineers were native born men, European immigrants built and restored the tracks, and African Americans worked as Pullman or any uneducated duties. Even though, railroads played an enormous part in everything and times were good for them the wages were low, hours were long, and working circumstances was a big hazard for all workers. Employees were working approximately 16 hours within 24 hours. By 1900 there were about 15,000 railroad workers in Chicago alone, and by 1930 the employee rate had doubled. Also by the 1930s African Americans were able to join the new unions. The new unionized railroad workers got paid more and the work environment was much
Trains had changed America a lot. It had turned transportation faster and easier. There not that famous as they used to be when it was first made but people still use them to go longer distance or to transport things. But they really changed it because if it wasn’t for trains buses probably wouldn’t have existed. But another reason is because there wasn’t any transportation back in the days except horses and trains had changed everything it was faster it went farther distances and it was easy to ride one to a far location. They had made transportation easier than it was already because trains would go farther than the transportation already was. The railroad also helped a lot they gave people more opportunities for better jobs sense more people
Ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work required in railroad building, they soon became as efficient as the white laborers.” (A History of the Chinese in America, 44) Over the six-year course of building the transcontinental railroad, the Central Pacific Railroad Company hired just about 15,000 Chinese workers to build the railroad.
Railroads had the most impact on the nineteenth century. It was viewed to be one of the most important inventions. Railroads allowed for economic growth, and effectively added to the transportation network. They served as a link between far away cities allowing people to come together, purchase outside goods, have greater independence and promote economic specialization. Railroads would later have the ability to produce items in large
The increase of railroads also gave a hand in the advancement of technology in new inventions because their creation required both scientific and enterprising innovating. It makes sense that whoever participated in this effort gained new skills and knowledge which would then be passed along to other workers who would tinker and discover ways to make the process more efficient. Railroads had a huge impact on the corporate mindset of the North. It encouraged them think outside of the box and inspired more industrial prospering.
Before railroads were ever implemented into American society, there was another form of primary transportation. In the early 1800s, goods and passengers were carried by ships. For some time, boats on rivers, lakes, and the ocean proved to be adequate enough to convey freight and people where it needed to go. However, these methods of transportation often posed problems of being too slow and too inconvenient. First appearing in the 1830s, the railroad business grew and in 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed, allowing people to think about more efficient settlement across the country. Railroads were the fountainhead of American expansion because they provided for town and city creation and development across the entire United States.
The United States was moving from a farming country to a strong industrial country. With the Invention of the railroad many new businesses formed. Giving the ability to ship supplies from coast to coast on the transcontinental railroad. It gave companies like Sears Roebuck and Standard Oil the ability to sell their supplies and stuff all across the United States. The railroad played a huge part in the United States
The Impact of Railroads on America Railroads had a major impact on America in the late 19th century. The building of the railroads increased the opportunity for rapid economic growth in America. Building and maintaining the railroads created more than one million jobs at the time. Coal, timber, and steel industries employed thousands of workers to provide the supplies necessary for building the railroads (book).
Railroads were the linchpin in the new industrialized economy. The railroad industry enabled raw materials, finished products, food, and people to travel cross-country in a matter of days, as opposed to the months or years that it took just prior to the Civil War. By the end of the war, the United States boasted some 35,000 miles of track, mostly in the industrialized North. By the turn of the century, that number had jumped to almost 200,000 miles, linking the North, South, and West. With these railroads making travel easier, millions of rural Americans flocked to the cities, and by 1900, nearly 40 percent of the population lived in urban areas.
The railways became an important system that guided settlement and delivered economic opportunity for much of the United States. Railroads allowed access to places that people had no means of getting to and provided an opportunity to develop cities and towns
The History of the Railroad Ever since 1619 when the first colony of Jamestown was established in America, slavery was a way of life. The ethnicity of these slaves varied, from being either Native American of African, but majority were African. “Slavery lasted so long and controlled so many people's lives, that it may seem impossible to comprehend the phenomenon and to know the people involved. Yet it is extremely difficult to grasp many aspects of roles in the lives and development of the American people.” (Burgan,4)
During the early 1800’s America needed a type of transportation that was faster, cheaper, and more reliable. So when in 1811 the British made the first successful railroad it did not take long for Americans to start building the first common railroad the Baltimore and Ohio in 1828. After the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was built America felt railroad fever and hundreds of railroads were built. The Railroad changed the American economy and culture in just a few years.
Soon other lines followed throughout the country. Railroads affected almost every aspect of American life. The rapid spread of the railroads provided the basis for a tremendous westward movement of population. It also carried raw material to, and finish product from factories to consumers in a more efficient way (The USA online, n.d.). The railways became highly profitable business for their owners.
The invention of the railroad gave Americans a huge advantage towards transportations. Americans were able to travel away from crowded eastern cities and settle down to the
During the 19th century the Chinese immigrants worked in factories that help boost the growing industry of America. While the civil war took place, the Chinese people worked in wool mills, cigar, shoe, and garment industries specifically in California. The Chinese people also played a major role in the building of the railroad from the east to the west. The Chinese people would also work in gold mines in California and in Hawaii as contract laborers on sugarcane plantations. They would also play small roles in the communities as merchants, gardeners, domestics, laundry workers, and farmers. . The Chinese people also played a major role in the building of the railroad from the east to the west. Approximately about 15,000 Chinese people were employed by the “The Central Pacific Railroad Company” to build the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinese were willing to get paid lower wages then regular workers. Working on the railroad required them to endure many hazardous conditions. Communities were created along the Transcontinental Railroad, Chinese men would open their own business and do jobs that woman would mostly do such as caring for children,
America was rapidly changing with the growth of ideas and inventions in the early nineteenth century. A major factor that allowed the United States to flourish in the late nineteenth century was the installment of the railroad system. The push to build railroads in the United States began in the 1830s and carried on far into the 1870s. The railways became an important system that guided settlement and delivered economic opportunity for much of the United States. Railroads allowed access to places that people had no means of getting to and provided an opportunity to develop cities and towns. The impact of the railways allowed the United States to become more mobile and efficient as it was going through a period of change. The railways