Narrative Analysis: The Railroad Reconstruction This Documents

The article, “Creating the System: Railroads and the Modern Corporation”, informs us all about the development of the transcontinental railroad and how it helped drive the nation west and also transformed western North America into a economy that had many opportunities. The railroads have always interested me when it comes to this period of time. What I learned from the reading that I didn’t know before was that the Western railroads were primary carriers of grain, other agricultural produce, livestock, coal, lumber and minerals. Also seeing the prices that the farmers shipped their products for, and what they paid for the freights rates was very interesting. Overall, if the railroads wouldn’t have been built in a time when there was so little

With the onset of traveling visitor and settlers in and though the region: new developments in industry began to emerge in the west, one innovation brought with it new possibilities of opportunity. Today we call it the railroad. The railroad had been purchacing: properties, farms, ranches and businesses at vast rates to gage their railroad through Rocky Ford and Arkansas River Valley to displaced hundreds of people, today we call them Homeless. George W. Swink

The making of the railroad’s back in the 1850s was a big deal. “We have the honor to report the last rail is laid, the last spike is driven. The Pacific Railroad is finished” (Nebraska State Historical Society). An examination of primary and secondary sources willreveal the historical significance of this event.

“If any act symbolized the taming of the Northwest frontier, it was the driving of the final spike to complete the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.”1 The first railroad west of the Mississippi River was opened on December 23, 1852. Five miles long, the track ran from St. Louis to Cheltanham, Missouri. Twenty-five years prior, there were no railroads in the United States; twenty-five years later, railroads joined the east and west coasts from New York to San Francisco.2

The railroad had impacted the lives of many, even though it had ruined some lives it made others wonderful. Throughout the process of the railroad being built many settlers had been attracted to the new land that was discovered with it, “Millions of acres of the finest land in Nebraska for sale, at prices that defy competition.”(document 5) This allowed more people to make a living by selling

The Transcontinental Railroad was the largest project the United States had ever seen. Due to lack of technology, the enormous size of the project, and the environmental conditions, the railroad seemed to be an impossible task.  This construction project posed a huge challenge to those working on it. The railroad’s route would span nearly seven hundred

An astounding invention in the nineteenth century transformed America. Towns sprang up where only barren land had once been, families reconnected and and crossed the continent together, and immigrants poured into the Land of Opportunity. Few technological advancements had enough influence to impact so many people and places, but the Transcontinental Railroad was one of those rare cases. From 1863 to 1869, the Railroad expanded over the continent. This project had many unforeseen effects, whether social, economic, or political. The Transcontinental Railroad affected America the most socially by changing travel for the average American, uprooting the American Indians, and leading to more prejudice against immigrants.

With Congress granting the railroad companies millions of acres of public land, a new railroad project dubbed the Transcontinental Railroad underwent construction. The Transcontinental Railroad would drive travel time down from three months by methods conventional to the times to only eight days by railcar. With the Homesteader act, the Transcontinental Railroad, and goods being more readily available, people found it much easier to settle the Great Plains. However, the expanse of the railroads created a false sense of economic growth, and with banks and investors feeding into that growth, catastrophe would soon follow. More money was being spent on the railroads than the railroad could return. The end result of this would cause the closing

The First Transcontinental Railroad, completed in 1869 by the U.S. government under president and former Army general Ulysses S. Grant, was a defining moment in American history. The railroad, which stretches across 1,900 miles of mountainous terrain, was completed nearly 6 years after construction began in 1863. The First Transcontinental Railroad became the cornerstone of the economic prosperity in the western United States, allowing American citizens to conveniently travel to the west coast in a matter of days. The creation of this railroad, along with the American dream of unifying the coasts, is what ultimately drove Americans to colonizing and transforming the west into the urban environment it is today. Significantly, this railroad became the physical manifestation of Manifest Destiny, or the idea that America not only could, but was destined to be connected between its coasts. The First Transcontinental Railroad became the physical manifestation of the American Identities consisting of American Exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, as well as the fundamental American ideals such as prosperity, freedom, and democracy which were first brought to the continent in the 1600s.

Have you ever seen a railroad? Well, there was a time when railroads were desperately needed. This was the time of the Transcontinental Railroad. In my paper I will explain the purpose of the railroad, challenges the workers faced, and the results of the finished railroad.

In the short story “The Story of an Hour” it represents the building of the transcontinental railroad. Mrs. Mallard’s husband was killed during the building of this railroad, Brently Mallard’s name was at the top of the list of being killed. This short story basically shows the effects of the families of those killed during the railroad. After Mrs. Mallard’s husband was killed she was an emotional wreck. Mrs. Mallad became empty without her husband, it was said in this short story, “She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless.” Due to this emotional distress, she died of heart disease.

Transportation was one challenge the railroad fixed. People could now travel and discover the frontier faster. Trade was also increased once the tracks were finished. Many could now take their items to new areas to make trades. Another nuisance that the transcontinental railroad corrected was the communication gap. Settlers were often isolated, so when the railroad was completed other settlers would meet up to chat and help one another out. The last major impact the completion of the transcontinental railroad created was the opportunity for new jobs. Silver mining in Comstock Lode, Nevada and gold mining in the Black Hills created many jobs for settlers. Railroad companies may have helped the United States, but they would capitalize off of the government. These companies did so through the Pacific Railway Acts. The Pacific Railway Acts provided loans and land grants to railroad companies in order to help the companies raise money for the construction of new railroads. In return the government would get discounted rates to send troops and mail. By the end of these acts, “Congress and granted over 131 million acres of land to railroad companies.” (Holt McDougal, 590). The transcontinental railroad had improved many things, but that’s not all this railroad

“Railroads were the first big business, the first magnet for the great financial markets, and the first industry to develop a large-scale management bureaucracy. The railroads opened the western half of the nation to economic development, connected raw materials to factories and retailers, and in so doing created an interconnected national market. At the same time the railroads were themselves gigantic consumers of iron, steel, lumber, and other capital goods”.

On May 10, 1869 Americans celebrated the first rail road crossing north America. The Union Pacific reached westward from Omaha, Nebraska and central pacific. This real road helped to transport horses and men west in the battle with Native Americans where they were weak to fight. It also helped hunters to gain a quick access to bison and they were able to harvest animals in easy way. After the civil war there was there was more, than twenty thousand bison but after the railroad the natural environment was destroyed and by the end of 1885, only one thousand bison remained. In 1893 congress gave the railroads 4,840 square yards, which worth more than 500 million dollars the railroad changed American economy, society and politics in gilded age. The railroad had a big impact by bringing millions of migrants to America. Between 1870 and 1900, the railroad helped bring more than two million American migrants to the Mississippi west. By 1905, sixty thousand Russian Mennonites come to fertile Kansas plains by using the Santa Fe

Abraham Lincoln said “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves”.  The underground railroad was a chance for freedom.  Slaves faced the risk of natural disasters and betrayal such as being sold back into slavery. Runways were practically on their own and underground railways rarely began in the South, the North Star directed the flight. On cloudy evenings, tree moss, which grew on the north side of the tree trunks served as a guide. To avoid capture they relied heavily on back roads, waterways, mountains, swamps, forests and fields to escape, sometimes slaves could travel by steamship, wagon, boat, and railroad train. The Slavery acts continually split the nation apart. Harriet Tubman escaped from the eastern Shore of Maryland and became known as “Moses” to her people when she made 19 trips to the South and helped deliver at least 300 fellow slaves and loved ones to liberation.  Frederick Douglass was a former slave who turned out to be an amazing speaker and writer, writing his own autobiography, and publishing his own newspaper.