Section 2 – The Railroads

After the Civil War, the rapid construction of the railroads accelerated Industrialization and linked the country together both literally and figuratively How so figuratively?

Construction began on the TCR when Lincoln passed the Pacific Railway Act (1862) When did the Civil War end? Construction was assigned to 2 major corporations to encourage rapid construction through healthy competition: The Union Pacific Railroad (went from the Union towards the Pacific Ocean – East to West) The Central Pacific Railroad ( Went from the Pacific towards the Center of the Nation – West to East)

Under the Direction of engineer Greenville Dodge Began pushing westward from Omaha Nebraska (1865) What kind of workers? ______________________

Led by “The Big Four” Originally the project was the dream of Theodore Judah He would go on to sell his stock to 4 big merchants: 1. Leland Stanford 2. Charley Crocker 3. Mark Hopkins 4. Collis P. Huntington

The Big 4 would go on to amass tremendous fortunes Stanford would become known as governor of California, and established Stanford University Shortage of Labor led the Central Pacific to hire 10,000 Chinese immigrants to work the railroad for 1$ a day

WORKERS: Shortage of Labor led the Central Pacific to hire 10,000 Chinese immigrants to work the railroad for 1$ a day

The Last spike was driven into the ground on May 10 th 1869, Uniting the Central and Union Pacific Railroads at Promontory Summit, Utah

Stimulated the Economy by: Enabling other industries to flourish by delivering supplies Spent huge amounts of $$$ on Timber, Steel, and Coal Connected hundreds of towns and cities across the nation

One of the most successful railroad Consolidators was Cornelius Vanderbilt 1869 – Vanderbilt purchased and merged 3 small New York Railroads Offered railroad services between New York City and Chicago

Homework – Look at the Political Cartoons on page 192 Answer the Analyzing Visuals questions at the bottom of the page Also Answer the following Question, by citing a quote from the text Why were some railroad barons called, “Robber Barons”?

The United States Government offered land grants to many railroad companies These companies would sell these plots of land to real estate companies, or other businesses to help raise money to fund railroad construction 1850’s – 1860’s – The government gave 120,000,000 acres of public land to railroad companies

Pg 192 – “the great wealth many railroad entrepreneurs acquired in the late 1800’s led to accusations that they had built their fortunes by swindling investors and taxpayers, bribing officials, and cheating on their contracts and debts.” Bribery occurred frequently: some investors would pay congressmen to get more land grants… Jay Gould was the most infamous of the Robber Barons, he was notoriously corrupt

Corruption in the RR industry became public in 1872 when the Credit Mobilier Scandal erupted. Credit Mobilier was a company set up by several stockholders of the Union Pacific RR Oakes Ames, a congressmen was one of these stockholders They overcharged the Railroad and added miles to the RR construction Since investors controlled both companies, the railroad agreed to pay the inflated bills without question

By the time the Union Pacific RR was completed, these investors had made millions But the RR itself had used up its federal grants and was almost bankrupt… To convince congress to give the RR more grants, Ames sold shares to other members of congress at a rate well below their market value This led to an investigation of the Congressmen that bought these shares, but no criminal charges were ever pressed…

While most railroad entrepreneurs were considered, “Robber Barons” not all were corrupt… James J. Hill was one of the good ones He built: The Great Northern Railroad - - Label the Great Northern RR on your map