Transcript Industrialization in the United States

Industrialization in the
United States
The Railroad Industry: Linking the
Nation
(1860s-1890s)
The Railroad Industry – The MAIN IDEA!

Railroads were rapidly
constructed at the end of the
Civil War (1865)…

BUT, in order to make this
happen, capital investment
was necessary…
– Railroad companies needed
land as well (land grants)

However, huge profits led to
corruption.
1. Linking the Nation

MAIN IDEA: After the Civil War, the rapid
construction of railroads accelerated the
nation’s industrialization and linked the
country together.
2. “Robber Barons”

MAIN IDEA: The government helped
finance railroad construction by providing
land grants, but this system also led to
corruption.
How did Americans in the 1850s get from the East Coast to the West
Coast? Why would they want to?
Building a National Network – From
the Beginning…

1862, the Pacific Railway Act
– aka “An Act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line
from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the
government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes”
Incentives, Incentives, Incentives…

Each company received…
– $16,000 per mile built over an easy grade
– $32,000 per mile in the high plains
– $48,000 per mile in the mountains.

Payment was in the form of government bonds…

Congress provided additional assistance in the form of land
grants of federal/public lands!

How did these incentives affect the “transcontinental” project?
Building the Transcontinental
Railroad

Union Pacific – Grenville Dodge
– Funded by Thomas C. Durant
– Would work WEST from Omaha,
Nebraska…

Central Pacific – Theodore Judah
– Funded by the “Big Four”
– Would work EAST from Sacramento,
California
AMC's Hell on Wheels - Thomas C. Durant

“Robber Barons” exploited the
government’s generous
contributions
Construction and Labor

Union Pacific used Civil
War Vets and Irish
Immigrants…

Central Pacific used
Chinese immigrants…

Labor was tedious,
dangerous, unforgiving;
often resulted in injury or
death.
The Last Spike!

In the end, the Union
Pacific ended up
“winning”
– laid nearly 1,100 miles
to the Central Pacific’s
700 miles!

Why do you think this
was?

May 1869, Central
Pacific and Union
Pacific met in
Promontory, Utah…
RAILROADS SPUR OTHER INDUSTRIES

The rapid growth of the railroad
industry influenced the iron, coal,
steel and lumber businesses as
they tried to keep up with the
railroads demand for materials…
– Why would this be?

Many of today’s major cities owe
their legacy to the railroad…
– Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and
Seattle!

Cornelius Vanderbilt
– New York to Chicago
RAILROAD AND TIME

Before the 1880s, each
community operated on its own
time…
– Clocks were set by the sun’s
position at noon (“God’s Time”)
– Problems? I think so.

No standard time reference!

The railroad industry used its
own standard time based on the
local time of its headquarters or
most important terminus…
Charles Dowd Creates Time Zones

In 1869, to remedy this
problem, Dowd proposed
dividing the earth into 24
time zones.

The U.S. would be divided
into 4 zones: Eastern,
Central, Mountain and
Pacific.

1883, “The Day of Two
Noons”

1884 – International
Conference adopts zones!
THE UNITED STATES IS DIVIDED INTO 4 TIME ZONES
Back to the Union Pacific Railroad
Company, shall we?

Stockholders of Union Pacific
Railroad (mainly Durant)
formed a construction
company in 1864…
– Crédit Mobilier of America
– Stockholders then gave
contracts to the company to lay
track at 3 times the actual costs
and pocketed the difference!

They donated shares of the
stock to 20 Republican
members of Congress in 1867

Scandal went public in 1872
The Great Northern Railway

1893, James J. Hill breaks the “Robber Baron” stereotype with
the Great Northern Railway...

Completely privately funded, no federal land grants and was
actually profitable!
*How did railroads change
American society?*
*How did they “link the nation?”*