The Age of Railroads

Ch. 6 Section 2

First Transcontinental Railroad

The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 in Promontory, Utah wher they drove in a golden spike to mark the meeting of two rail lines

The Harsh Reality of Railroad Workers

• Central Pacific hired thousands of Chinese immigrants

• Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants and desperate, out-of-work civil war veterans

• Workers laid track in treacherous terrain, suffered attacks from Native Americans, and faced disease and accidents– 1888 statistics show over 2,000 dead and more

than 20,000 injured

Railroad Time

• Noon was considered to be whenever the sun was directly overhead (different everywhere)

• A solution was proposed by Professor C.F. Dowd– Divide the earth’s surface

into 24 time zones– US had 4 time zones

Effects of Rapid

Growth of Railroads

Corruption: Credit Mobilier company stockholders gave

company a contract to lay track at 3X the price and

pocketed the profitsGrowth of Towns and Cities: Pullman created a town specifically for his employees in Illinois

Regulation of Industry: The Grange (farmer’s org) pressed for laws to regulate railroads for the benefit of farmers- Munn v. Illinois

Nationwide Market: products could be shipped anywhere in the country, so some cities began to

specialize in one product (ex: Chicago stockyards)

Consolidation of Railroads: Corporate abuses, mismanagement, and overbuilding pushed

many railroads to bankruptcy leading to a major economic collapse in 1893 (panic of 1893). J.P.

Morgan and Co reorganized railroads.