For twenty years after the Gold Rush, Americans in California felt extremely remote from the rest of the United States. The early Forty-Niners of the California Gold Rush wishing to come to California were faced with limited options. Some options included sailing around South America from the Atlantic which could take up to eight months or travel by land but that came with many dangers as well. The railroads helped establish countless towns and settlements, it paved the way to abundant mineral deposits and fertile tracts of pastures and farmland, and created new markets for eastern goods. For many, the dream of a transcontinental railroad symbolized all sorts of hopes for better things. The Central Pacific Railroad Company was authorized by Congress in 1862. The establishment of America's transcontinental rail lines securely linked California to the rest of the country, and the …show more content…
The railroad shipped $50 million worth of freight coast to coast each year. The railroad brought an economic growth for businesses. It also allowed people to travel across country at a cheaper rate and at a much faster pace. The railroad brought many positive effects to California but it didn’t stay that way. Just as the railroad created economic growth it also brought a lot of corruption with it. The railroad companies were given government bonds that were funded by the taxpayers and they were also given enormous amounts of land to build on. There was little incentive to function efficiently or responsibly. ‘Stocks were manipulated, as bosses bought struggling eastern rail companies, spread rumors that the railroad line would link to these companies.’ (Coffey, W, Corruption and the Transcontinental Railroad, http://waltercoffey.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/corruption-and-the-transcontinental-railroad/).
The widespread fraud and abuse surrounding the transcontinental line resulted in the greatest scandal of the 19th
Completed in 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad opened new doors for the United States. In order for this to happen though, some had to be closed. Our country was in desperate need on some of these changes, but some we could have lived without. This great connection of the coasts brought with it many positive and negative effects on the Native Americans, society, and the environment.
People who migrated to California were unsuccessful in the places they were and they looked for a new job and gold was the answers to their prayers. A big question being asked is who's really being paid the big bucks from the rush. In primary source “History of California before 1900” explains in who colonized olden and now new day California. California was a colony of Spain, but in 1821 Mexico had fought and the Spanish claimed California as one of its new and justified northern provinces. Twenty-five years later, the Mexican-American War became a factor and the United States won this battle and won California.
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.
From 1865 to 1900 agriculture was at war, shifting from small, individual farms to larger commercialized farms because of the devaluing of currency, competition from corporate farms with more land and better technology, and government policies that proved detrimental to those clinging to old ways of life. To escape debt and seek profit in new lands, many farmers started working westward but so did corporations looking to expand. Because of westward expansion, companies like the union pacific railroad company built railroads that connected lands all across the U.S. and earned 10 miles of land in either direction of the railroad. This land put the railroad in control of many western lands and in control of the prices of land, travel and resource transportation.
Over 300,000 people migrated to California during the California Gold Rush. One way that these migrants contributed to Westward Expansion was that they boosted the economy in California. Many small cities in California that had previously consisted of a few hundred citizens soon had tens of thousands of residents. Another way that the 49ers contributed to Westward Expansion was their impact on the Native Americans. As the mining industry in California grew, the Native’s sources for food were killed and contaminated by chemicals and silt.
Sometimes when you are driving in your car, you drive over some railroad tracks. People nowadays always come across railroads tracks. Many of these tracks are abandoned and the only times you ever see a train is when you are in a city. Trains back then were very popular on carrying people or supplies, but today trains we barely use trains for those tasks. Today people do not care of trains and when you see a train, it will mostly have graffiti on it.
The driving force behind the transcontinental railroad was the competition between two railroad companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. The government would pay each company sixteen thousand dollars for every mile of track laid. This got the companies moving as fast as they could. The Union Pacific started in Omaha Nebraska on flat terrain. The Central Pacific started in Sacramento California and had to find their way through the Sierra Nevadas.
Central Pacific Railroad started from San Francisco, and used Chinese laborers for their work, pushing through the Sierra Nevada mountains. In 1867, to encourage quick progression, Congress deemed the land remaining between the two companies, which was the Utah plains, to be paid at mountain rate. This motivated the Union Pacific crew to lay 360 miles of track, and the Central Pacific crew to lay 425 miles of track within the year (Stockwell, 2011). Unfortunately, this hasty pace came at a cost.
The transcontinental railroad were tracks that started in the east and branched out all the way to to California. This railroad saved many settlers the long and dangerous trek from one side of the country to the
The major decline in railroad transportation during the 1950’s was primarily due to the vast construction of interstate highway by the government. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the vast construction of 41,000 miles of roadway with a steep price of 25 billion dollars that would come from taxpayer money. With the increase in air and road travel, the need to travel by rail, in a less direct route, seemed unnecessary. This would ultimately leave railroad companies to believe traveling by rail was in a permanent decline. On February 18, 1947, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) formally announced that they were operating at a loss.
The Transcontinental Railroad brought conflict between the United States federal
The Tremendous Impact of Railroads on America In the late 19th century, railroads propelled America into an era of unprecedented growth, prosperity, and convenient transportation. Prior to the building of the railroads, America lacked the proper and rapid transportation to make traveling across the country economical or practical. Lengthy travel was often cumbersome, costly, and dangerous.
To further the control of information within the United States railroad companies hired lobbyists and journalists to paint a specific picture of the transcontinental advancements to the American
Business owners made lots of money from the railroads because they were able to transport goods farther and faster with ease. Although the railroads tremendously impacted businesses and therefore the economy, the native americans were negatively impacted because the railroads were being laid on “their” land. This caused distrust between the settlers and the natives because of the “disrespect” for the land. Because of the new ways of transportation, the industrial revolution took place causing skilled artisans to be replaced by unskilled workers that used large complex machines.
In between California and the rest of the country were the Great Plains which were not heavily populated so there was no easy way of trade and transportation to the growing western territories. A group of men called the “Big Four” which consisted of Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, decided what the country needed was a transcontinental railroad. Their company, The Central Pacific Railroad company would hire 15,000 Chinese men to work on constructing the railroad due to the fact that they would work for less than the average American. This made transportation cheaper and quicker than ever