Gilded Age

The Way West… Settlers had three main methods of heading West: –By foot or wagon. –By boat. –By train.

Railroads

Why Build Railroads? Used to connect people. –Towns to cities, states to states, East Coast to West Coast. –Help people move from place to place, settle new areas. Used to connect resources and production. –Cattle to butchers to the dinner table; gold from mines to smelters to banks; corn from farms to markets to the dinner table. Make money. –Capitalists who specialized in buying, building, and running, Railroads to make turn a profit for themselves and (sometimes) for share holders.

Early Railroads Were primarily in the Northeast. Connected markets to producers. Expanded greatly after the Civil War. Thousands of miles of track were added every year. Miles of Railway ,000 Miles of Railway ,556

How is a Railroad Built? What is needed? –Land –Labor (people) –Wood –Fuel (wood, coal, later diesel) –Iron & Steel –Organization –Capital (money)

Land Railroads were provided land on which to build. (Right of way) Railroads were given every other square acre of land to sell to help pay for building the railroads. Land grants helped to promote railroad building.

Railroad Towns Frontier villages competed to become a stop along a railroad –Sometimes blackmail and bribes were offered –Those not linked to the railroad became Ghost Towns

Industry Industry grew with the Railroads. –Iron and Steel, Coal and Wood. Leaders emerged who build (and lose) fortunes providing what the railroad companies needed. Pushes innovation and creates new technologies.

Connecting East and West Needed to connect both halves of the country together.

The Union Pacific Railroad Commissioned by Congress to start westward from Omaha, Nebraska

Central Pacific Railroad Commissioned by Congress to build railroad starting in California and moving east.

People Building and running a Railroad is extremely labor intensive. Thousands of workers were needed for the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.

RR Workers Hard to find those willing to brave the conditions to build the railroads: –Indians who attacked the UP line. –Snow avalanches that struck the CP. –Working with dynamite, hot sun, bad food, bad shelter, and poor pay.

“Paddies” Irish immigrants and out of work Civil War veterans laid most of the tracks of the Union Pacific

The Chinese Immigrants Nearly 10,000 Chinese laborers laid track for the CP, cutting into the Sierra Nevada Mts.

Deadly Jobs The Railroads provided jobs for thousands of workers during construction and after. Quickly became the nation’s largest employer. Hundreds died every year and thousands were maimed.

Promontory Point, Utah The Transcontinental Railroad is Complete May 10, 1869

What’s Missing?

Effects of the Transcontinental RR Magnificent engineering feat Welded West Coast to the Union Increased trade with Asia Sometimes laid down railroad that led from “nowhere to nothing” Paved way for the growth of the West Quickened demise of Native Americans –Cut through their lands, helped kill buffalo

How About Here and the Northeast? Cornelius Vanderbilt Amassed fortune of $100 million in the railroads Donated $ to start Vanderbilt University Helped Consolidate railroads in East

East Becomes Standard Steel replaced iron for use as tracks Standard Gauge of track – allowed railcars to switch from line to line without changing cargo

Why were railroad lines constructed where they were? What cities are linked within New York? Why do you think these were linked? How were locations in New York affected by the railroad?

Scandal Credit Mobilier construction company –Insiders pocketed $73 million for $50 million in breakneck work –Bribed congressmen to look the other way –VP Colfax forced to resign –President Ulysses S. Grant linked to scandal

Price Fixing Railroads were quickly concentrated into the hands of a few businessmen. Some of these railroad men took advantage of the public and charged some more than others. Farmers were particularly hard hit as they had little money and were routinely charged more. Called for Government control of the Railroads.