Unit 1: Technological Revolution and American Expansion

The Industrial and Technological Revolution… Following the era of Reconstruction, America modernized and grew:

1. Inventions like the telegraph, electricity, and telephone aided business, communication, and home comforts

2. The Transcontinental Railroad unified railway tracks from coast to coast

The Union Pacific is one of the largest and fastest growing transportation companies in America

The Union Pacific is also the oldest railroad company in continuous operation under its original name west of the Mississippi

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe rivals the Union Pacific Railroad in the Midwest and Western United States

3. Oil and gasoline replaced coal-led steam power

4. A new process for making steel (the Bessemer Process) allowed for mass production of a long- lasting material

Steel production led to great feats like skyscrapers and massive bridges Brooklyn Bridge 1883

The contemplated work, when constructed in accordance with my design, will not only be the greatest bridge in existence, but it will be the great engineering work of the continent and of the age." - John Roebling, the creator of the Brooklyn Bridge

Home Insurance Building, Chicago, 1885

Flat Iron NY 1902 Chrysler Building, NY 1928 Empire State Building, NY 1929

5. Some men learned to create “Big Business”… Andrew Carnegie John Rockefeller Big Corporations