How Did The Transcontinental Railroad Affect The Settling Of The West?

In the late 19th century there was a spike in Railroad Construction in the United States. The growth began as a result of congress passing the Pacific Railroad Bill in 1862 which began the construction of the Transcontinental Railroads. In the near future the Transcontinental Railroads would connect both sides of the United States, therefore they would eventually lead up to the settling of the west. Railroads in the late 19th century would affect the settling of the west by allowing people to travel to find work in an efficient manner, by allowing faster and more efficient methods to transport goods to consumers, and improving the economy overall.
Starting off Railroads greatly impacted travel time from one place to another. According to the article How the Transcontinental Railroads Changed America, Traveling from New York To California took about a month and cost about a grand. After the Transcontinental railroad was completed traveling from coast to coast was completely different. Now Traveling from coast to coast took a week and cost about $150. Since both the time and cost of traveling went down you could expect to see people who were struggling in one place financially would move to a different environment.

Before railroads everything was shipped by wagon which took longer and cost more. Now with the help of the railroads goods were now processed faster. Since the cost of transporting goods went down it is only right that the price of the good goes down as well which is what took place. According to the article “How the Transcontinental Railroad shaped America” over the course of the first ten years of the railroad in action trains were shipping about Fifty million dollars worth of products. Railroads helped bringing and taking the product to the consumers in an efficient manner or begin a new