1. Objective: To examine the growth of the railroad industry.
Do Now: p. 574 Name at least two problems early railroads had, and explain how they were resolved.
Problems:
1. The South had short rail lines that didn’t form a network.
2. The tracks in the North and the South had different widths, or gauges, so they couldn’t be connected.
Railroads in 1890
Solution:
Southern railroads adopted the rails of the North.

2. Growth of Railroads
- Once the gauge, or width, of tracks was standardized, railroads formed a network, or system of connected lines.
Top: Railroads in 1890
Right: Railroads in 1918

3. - Large companies bought smaller ones or forced them out of business.
Cornelius Vanderbilt and James Fisk are shown in a race for control of New York's rails. Vanderbilt unsuccessfully tried to take over the Erie R.R. by buying out its stock.

4. - Railroad companies began to consolidate, or combine, in order to compete with large companies, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt’s.
- Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of the richest men in America, and the most powerful railroad baron.
Cornelius Vanderbilt

5. The Breakers, Newport, RI

6. The Breakers, Newport, RI
- The 1895 Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion, facing the Atlantic Ocean, is perhaps the finest example of American Renaissance architecture.
- Cornelius Vanderbilt II became the Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system in 1885.
- Cornelius Vanderbilt II was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
- The Breakers is the grandest of Newport’s summer “cottages” and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America.

7. Marble House, Newport, RI

8. Marble House, Newport, RI
- Completed in 1892 for Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, the interior Marble House is designed almost exclusively of imported Italian marble.
- William K. Vanderbilt was the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
- The mansion cost $11 million to build, $7 million of which was for the marble.
- The house was given to Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt as a gift on her 39th birthday.
- Alva used the house frequently to hold rallies in support of women’s suffrage.

9. Abuses:
- Railroad companies offered rebates, or discounts, in order to keep or win customers.
- This forced many small railroad companies out of business.
- In order to end competition and keep prices high, railroad companies agreed to divide up business in an area and set high prices. This was known as pooling.

10. Effects on Industry:
- The railroad industry created thousands of new jobs.
Examples: steelworkers, lumberjacks, miners, railroad workers
- The railroads opened up the country to settlement and growth.
Anti-railroad propaganda