Transcontinental Railroad
Prior to the 1860's, the most efficient ways to transport cargo and people were mule teams, stage coaches, and steam boats. These methods needed to be replaced by a more efficient method. In 1830 the idea of a transcontinental railroad was introduced. Not much was done with the idea until 1853 when Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis accepted the idea. In 1862 Lincoln finally passed the Pacific Railroad Act. This act authorized a telegraph line and railroad track from Omaha to California. It also joined a railroad track from the Missouri River to the west coast with a track from New York to California. This totaled over 5,000 miles! This idea was not immediately agreed upon. Their were two ideas of where the railroad would begin, the north and the south. The north voted that the tracks should be in the north while the south voted for the tracks to be in the south. All work began on the railroad in 1863. Six years later in 1869 the final spike was put into the ground in Promontory Summit, Utah. People finally had an efficient way to get from coast to coast in a timely manor. It also gave businesses the ability to expand from one side of the country to another. The railroad was also an aid to the North in the Civil war many years later.
Big businesses rejoiced at the idea of having a way to carry their cargo from coast to coast! They could expand their factories to nearly anywhere around the country now. Not only that but with more and more businesses opening up or expanding, this created plenty of new jobs. Now even more people could leave the life of a farmer and get a job in a business. With more businesses sprouting up everywhere, the United States was truly becoming urbanized. Even the average civilian could use the train to move to a new section of the Country. A farmer could move from Utah to Pennsylvania in search of better land to grow his crops. Or a man could move to New York in search for an urban life in big business. This trip would only take a fraction of the time it would have previously taken. This caused population to shift from time to time.
For more on this go to http://www.tcrr.com/
CI
Big businesses rejoiced at the idea of having a way to carry their cargo from coast to coast! They could expand their factories to nearly anywhere around the country now. Not only that but with more and more businesses opening up or expanding, this created plenty of new jobs. Now even more people could leave the life of a farmer and get a job in a business. With more businesses sprouting up everywhere, the United States was truly becoming urbanized. Even the average civilian could use the train to move to a new section of the Country. A farmer could move from Utah to Pennsylvania in search of better land to grow his crops. Or a man could move to New York in search for an urban life in big business. This trip would only take a fraction of the time it would have previously taken. This caused population to shift from time to time.
For more on this go to http://www.tcrr.com/
CI