II. The Railroads• Major railroads, including the transcontinental

railroad, were constructed rapidly after the Civil War ended.

• Railroads required massive capital investment and government land grants

• The potential profits led to some corruption as well

Linking the Nation• How did the transcontinental railroad transform the West?

Linking the Nation

1865: U.S. had 35,000 miles of railroad tracks

1900: 200,000 miles of tracks

A Network Of Rails

• Early RR lines were short and served local communities.

• Different lines used different gauges- or widthso In 1886 RR’s adopted the

North’s gauges.

• Once track was standardized the RR formed a network- or system of connected lines all across the country.

Different Gauges

New and Improved!

• 1864 George Westinghouse invented the air brake.

o Allowed engineer to stop all rail cars at once.o Much Safer!

New and Improved!

• 1864 George Pullman invented the sleeping car.

o Eventually they added bathrooms and dining cars as well.

Stop and Think• What was the significance of Railroad gauges

being the same? • List and explain 3 improvements made to trains

during the late 1800s.

Pacific Railway Act

• 1862 Lincoln signed Pacific Railway Act railroad boom began

• Gave two companies permission to build the railroado Union Pacifico Central Pacific

• Offered each company land along the right-of-way

Union Pacific

• Union Pacific workerso Civil War veteranso Irish immigrants

• Height of project Union Pacific employed 10,000 workers

• Engineer Greenville Dodge (Union Pacific)o Pushed westward from Omaha,

Nebraska in 1865o Laborers faced blizzards o Heat in the deserto Angry Native Americanso Laboro Money and engineering problem

Central Pacific• Engineer Theodore

Judah (Central Pacific)• Sold stock to

Sacramento merchants• Leland Stanford (one of

the Big Four)o Made a fortuneo Became governor of Californiao Served as U.S. senatoro Founded Stanford University

• Hired 10,000 Chinese workers

• Paid $1.00 a day

The Transcontinental Railroad

• All equipment was shipped from the East

• Traveled around Cape Horn (South America)

• Overland Isthmus of Panama

The Transcontinental Railroad

• Completed in 4 yearso Each mile of track required

400 railso Each rail required 10 spikes

• Central pacific laid 688 miles of track

• Union Pacific 1,086 miles of track

• Promontory Summit, Utah two were joinedo Used silver and gold spikes

Railroads Spur Growth• Transcontinental first of

many lines• Railroads increased the

size of markets for products

• Spent huge amounts on steel, coal, timber

• Large connected with small to integrate railroad systems

• Integrate- to combine two previously separate things

Railroads Spur Growth

• Freight prices dropped by half from 1860 – 1900

• Railroads unified the nation’s clocks

• Created 4 time zones• Time zone – geographic

region in which standard time is kept

• Southern states improved transportation

• New industries like tourism to Florida

Linking the Nation• How did the transcontinental

railroad help unite the nation?

Robber Barons• How did government grants

to build railroads result in large- scale corruption?

Robber Barons• Investors could not

raise all the money the railroad neededo Investors – one who puts

money into a company in order to gain a financial reward

• Federal government gave land grantso Land Grants – a grant of land

by the federal government, especially for roads, railroads, or agricultural colleges

Robber Barons• Companies sold the

land to raise money• Bribery occurred

because government helped to fund the railroads

• Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould were accused of swindling

The Credit Mobilier Scandal

• Corruption became public in 1871

• Credit Mobilier construction company set up by several stockholders

• Oakes Ames member of Congress

• Investors signed overpriced contracts with themselves

• Union Pacific paid inflated bills

• Ames sold other members of Congress share below market price

The Credit Mobilier Scandal

• 1872 New York Sun listed all members of Congress who bought shares

• Investigation implicated several politicians

• Including representative James Garfield (later becomes president) and sitting Vice President Schuyler Colfax

• Neither criminal or civil charges were filed

The Great Northern Railroad

• Robber Baron- term used to describe industrialists who grew wealthy unethically

• James J Hill built the Great Northern fromo Wisconsino Minnesotao Washington o With no federal grants

The Great Northern Railroad

• Identified goods that were in demand in China (shipped from Washington)

• Railroad efficiently shipped goods East and West

• Became the most successful

• One of few not eventually forced into bankruptcy

Robber Barons•Why did the Robber Barons bribe people in Congress?

Robber Barons• They wanted Congress to give them more federal land grants