1. Expansion of Industry

2. Technology Transcontinental Railroad East and West meet
Promontory Point, Utah
Solved East/West transportation issues

3. Communication
Telegraph
Telephone

4. Bessemer Process Made it cheaper to remove impurities from iron
Made mass production of steel possible

5. Electricity Edison invented the light bulb
Westinghouse develops the alternating current (AC)

6. Brooklyn Bridge
Suspension design used
Longest in the world

7. Robber Baron Social Darwinism
Based on Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” concept
Society should not get involved in an individual’s drive to be successful

8. Powerful Industrialists
Andrew Carnegie – Steel
J.D. Rockefeller – Oil
J.P. Morgan – Banking
Cornelius Vanderbilt – Railroads
Thomas Edison – Inventions (incandescent light bulb)

9. Robber Barons sought to eliminate the competition and create MONOPOLIES

10. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Passed in Congress, 1890
Prevented industries from forming monopolies

11. Effects of Industrial Growth
Contributed to the wealth of America
Caused economic hardships
Manufactured too much
Lowered prices
Lowered wages
Fired workers
“Boom and Bust” period called the “economic cycle”