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Negative impacts of the transcontinental railroad
Transcontinental railroad negative impact
Transcontinental railroad negative impact
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In the late 1800s, the Transcontinental Railroad was constructed and that transformed the United States in many ways. This railroad helped expand the United States out to the west that could sew the country together and be connected in some sort of way. The Transcontinental Railroad impacted the United States economically by populating new areas for agriculture and mining, taxing railway shipping, and by importing and exporting. To start off with, a reason for an economic impact is the way the railroad helped populate new land that can open for mining, agriculture, and retail. Due to being able to mine, farm, and sell more helps the country expand in valuable resources found in the country, while also being able to sell food and clothes the
The railroad shaped Western economic development in many ways, especially by allowing the growth of Western lands. The railroads played a very important part to connect different types of railroad networks together, for example; industrial growth went up because of easy communication by railroad networks. In addition, farming growth rose up, by the expansion Western lands. One of the biggest was transportation, in which gives the consumer the ability to go to different places comfortably. The Transcontinental railroad opened up the Western lands, in which mining and ranching were popular and people took advantage of jobs.
Travelling and transporting goods were very inconvenient before railroads were built in 19th-century. “Before railroads, shipping a ton of goods 400 miles could easily quadruple the price. But by rail, the same ton of goods could be shipped in a fraction of the time and one-twentieth of the cost. ”9. These made the economies of the American West bad and difficult to improve.
The Transcontinental Railroad played a pivotal role in western expansion, making transportation from one end of the country to the other convenient and timely. However, the making of the Transcontinental Railroad affected many aspects other than transportation, such as: the Native Americans and their homeland, the economy of the U.S., and the citizens of America as a whole. Though the railroad can be credited with business growth and linking the country together, some of the events of building the acclaimed railroad adversely affected the country. The most effective way to prevent repeating the same mistakes is to review why they were mistakes in the first place.
During the late 1800’s, many settlers were expanding to the West and the Transcontinental Railroad helped them move from the East to the West. Some wanted to gain 160 free acres of land known as the Homestead Act. The Transcontinental Railroad connected the East and the West. The Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad were the companies that built the Transcontinental Railroad; however, the companies were run by greedy men and felt no guilt as they asked the government to pass special bills for them. The railroad cut through many lands and affected the Native Americans in a perilously way.
Transcontinental Railroad The largest single construction project ever undertaken within the country left approximately eighty thousand people dead, weighing in as the fifth deadliest construction project in the world. The Transcontinental Railroad shortened the distance traveled from the east coast to the west coast from months in a horse drawn wagon to only eight days by train. On July 1,1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Pacific Railroad Act. Asa Whitney, a New York businessmen tried for this project as early as the 1840’s, however, the 1850’s was the year that the United States Army Corps of Engineers was granted permission to survey the routes.
Like farmers, mining and logging companies needed a way to transport their products to industrial centers and found their need met by trains.” Any areas that grew crops, mined, logged, etc. would have benefited from railroads, because they would have been able to transport their products to sell. Railroads reduced the travel time required to deliver things like mail. The Library of Congress states, “After nearly 4,000 years of delivery by foot, horse, or boat, in the early 19th century the speed of mail delivery was greatly improved with the use of steamships and railroads.” Areas across the nation would have benefited from railroads because they increased the speed of mail, and this meant news would spread faster.
Railroads played a massive role in the development of United States. Railroads were important as an industry in themselves. Throughout the years the railway mileage exceeded 74, 000. The prominence in railroad construction was on organizing integrated system, after 1865. The railroads had incredible advantages compared to the steamboats, canals and other transportation medium.
Therefore, railroad has been brought in America. “The first trains began to run in America in the 1830s along the East Coast. By the 1840s, the nation's railway networks extended throughout the East, South, and Midwest, and the idea of building a railroad across the nation to the Pacific gained momentum. ”(Brief History) The transcontinental impacted the lifestyle of people.
Since the Transcontinental Railroad was created, the Native Americans land and culture was impacted by the Western Expansion. People thought the railroad was a positive thing because it improved transportation and communication, but many Native Americans were harmed because of it. During the years of 1850 to 1890, the Native Americans were forced off their land because they were in the way of the making of the railroad and the discovery of gold. Also, Americans broke the treaty of Fort Laramie, caused the Battle of Little Bighorn, and lost many lives because of their selfishness for the gold. In addition to that, Native American’s culture changed throughout time.
The Transcontinental Railroad not only untied the nation, but made America possible. Building the Transcontinental railroad was one of America’s greatest achievements, comparable to traveling to the moon and creating the atomic bomb. It connected the east and west coasts of the country, giving the people the ability to settle wherever they wanted. Before they would have had to travel by wagon, take a ship around South America, or risk getting yellow fever crossing the Isthmus of Panama.
The railroad has been a part of American culture for more than one hundred years. The ability to transport products is essential to every Americans everyday life. The railroad has always been a fascinating subject, full of childhood memories. It brought quick methods of transport that were previously limited to horses and waterways. The effected ranged from farmers, business owners, to consumers.
The cotton gin was a machine that was able to pick the seeds from cottons faster than the slaves and the machine was able to sell more profits for the south then ever before although the cotton gin was able to pick cotton seeds it also demanded the need for more slaves to pick the cotton from the fields which gave a negative impact for the slaves themselves. The Underground Railroad was an underground tunnel system that allowed African Americans slaves to escape from their slave owners. The system had a conductor, lines, stations, and freight to help them in the underground tunnels which is why people call it an underground railroad. Conductors were people that would help the slaves most of the conductors were Men and Women, The lines were
With the advent of the railroad, many of these issues disappeared. Railroads had a major impact on advancing the American economy, transforming America into a modern society, and improving an antiquated transportation system. The building of railroads created rapid economic growth in America. Railroad companies employed more than one million workers to build and maintain railroads. At the same time, coal, timber, and steel industries employed thousands of workers to provide the supplies necessary to build railroads (Chapter 12 Industrialization).
The development of the Western Frontier was extremely beneficial to the citizens of the United States. Railroad developments, western settlements, and irrigated land helped to create a strengthened idea of progress in the minds of Americans. Railroads were immensely valuable to the American society of this time. The railroad was the only way to transport goods to the far west. It facilitated the quick transportation of raw materials as well as finished goods from coast to coast.
