The Growth of Railroads Ms. Maddox & Mr. Piernick.

The Growth of Railroads

Ms. Maddox & Mr. Piernick

The Transcontinental Railroad

Before the Civil War; there were NO railroads west of the Mississippi River.

The building of the transcontinental railroad brought great changes to America. They would attempt to lay 1,775 miles of track from Omaha to Sacramento.

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A path would have to be cut through mountains higher than any railroad-builder had ever faced; span deserts where there was no water anywhere; and cross treeless prairies where anxious and defiant Indians would resist their passage.

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U.S. Government hired Union Pacific and Central Pacific U.S. Government hired Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railway Company to extend railways across the United Railway Company to extend railways across the United States. States. The Union Pacific was to start from Omaha Nebraska, cross the great plains and cut through the Rockies. The Central Pacific was to push eastward from Sacramento, over the Sierra Nevada mountains.

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In 1862, The Pacific Railway Act gave companies 10 square miles of land for each mile of track laid. The more track a railroad laid, the more land it would receive.

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The Union Pacific and Central Pacific were soon locked in a race to see who could lay the most track -- and therefore get the most land and money.

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The Central Pacific Railroad employed Chinese immigrants and the Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants.

All the immigrants worked for low pay and in horrible weather conditions.

About 2000 employees died and 20,000 were injured due to either accidents or diseases.

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Chinese railroad workers perform their duties in the snow.

The workers endured scorching deserts, blinding snowstorms, and blasted through mountains.

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Omaha, Nebraska

Sacramento, California

Promontory Point, Utah

Union Pacific Railroad

Central Pacific

Railroad

·Two companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, began building the first transcontinental railroad.

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Promontory, Utah May 10, 1869

Scheduling was a major concernBefore the railroads, each town kept its own time, based on the position of the sun. The time differences from town to town created confusion. . Railroad companies, however, needed more exact time tables. They devised a system with four time zones – Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time. Everyone living in a particular zone would follow the same time. However, the U.S. Congress didn’t officially adopt railroad time as the standard for the nation until 1918.

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USA Time Zones

Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern Time.

The Impact of the Railroads

• Easy for people to travel long distances.

•Economic growth.

•Steel-workers turned millions of tons of iron into steel for tracks and engines.

•Lumberjacks supplied wood for railroad ties.

•Miners dug coal to fuel the engines.

•Increase in trade among cities, towns, and settlements.

•Creation of new towns.

The Grange and the Railroad

Farmers were especially disturbed by what they viewed as railroad corruption.

Members of the Grange (farmers’organization) began demanding governmental control over the railroad industry.

Railroad abuses:

*selling government land grants to business rather than to families

*setting high shipping prices to keep farmers in debt.

The Grange and the Railroads

Railroads fought back against the Grangers, challenging the constitutionality of the regulatory laws.

In 1877, the case of Munn vs Illinois, the states won the right to regulate the railroads for the benefits of the farmers and consumers. In 1886, the Supreme Court ruled that a state could not set rates or interstate commerce.

In response to public outrage, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 – the right of Federal government to supervise railroad activities and established 5 member Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) for that purpose.

The ICC did have difficulty regulating railroad rates because of long legal process and resistance from the railroad.

Panic and Consolidation

Although the ICC presented few problems for the railroads, corporate abuses, mismanagement, overbuilding, and competition pushed many railroads to the brink of bankruptcy. Railroads were forced out of business, which led to the Panic of 1893.The Panic of 1893, was the worst depression up to that time. 600 banks and 15,000 business failed and 4 million people lost their jobs.By 1894, railroads had been taken over by financial companies such as J.P. Morgan & Company who reorganized the railroads.This caused the Large Firms to start buying up the railways, which paved the way for Big Businesses

The End

The Growth of Railroads Ms. Maddox & Mr. Piernick.

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Transcript of The Growth of Railroads Ms. Maddox & Mr. Piernick.