American Industrial Growth Essay

American industrial growth could have not occurred without industrial giants of the period due to the fact that where the ones who gave the big push for industry in America and the ones who started the expansion of big business and modernization of the United States. The Industrial giants helped in many ways but most importantly economically. During the end of the nineteenth century United States was in a state called the great deflation, meaning that the United States would have a mass expansion of industry. Meaning growth of big business and economic gains for the United States1. During the period of the great deflation Americans income increased by fifty percent, in 1877 Americans made three hundred and thirty eight dollars a year.

One of the first industry giant is the steel industry, before steel, wrought iron was used but it was full of impurity, it could be bended and could not be used for daily use and it was more expensive than steel. Henry Bessemer created the Bessemer converter which was used to produce large amounts of steel. The face of the steel industry was named Andrew Carnegie he came from a poor family from Scotland during the civil war he made a fortune building the Brooklyn bridge, New York’s elevated railroad, Washington monument and the first skyscrapers. In 1901 Carnegie sold his steel company which was a huge shock to the people during this time period, he sold it J.P Morgan who is now known as J.P Morgan Chase Bank. Morgan combined his steel company with his competitors to form U.S Steak which became the first billion dollar company. The second giant was the railroad industry which had a major impact for transportation it allowed for more direct routes, greater speeds compared to their traditional transportation methods, greater safety, better scheduling and greater comfort. The expansion of the railroads after the civil war had a major change. In 1865 only thirty five thousand miles where available, however in nineteen sixteen the number of