Civil War Population Growth And Urbanization Analysis

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The United States saw an amazing amount of growth following the civil war. The railroads were absolutely vital to the growth and urbanization of the nation. The American population was growing at breakneck speed to an estimated 76,000,000 by 1900 and still growing. The industry also quadrupled in size, from having a mere 30,000 miles of track to more than 250,000 miles of track also by 1900. The railroad industry was the thread that knitted the country back together and carried people west to urbanize the heartland and the western frontier. Another vital way the railroad industry helped to build the nation’s factories and cities was in 1880 when they began to replace all the iron rails with more cost effective steel ones. It was their