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The economic effects of the transcontinental railroad
How the transcontinental railroad impacted this aspect of the country's economy and immigration
How the transcontinental railroad impacted this aspect of the country's economy and immigration
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Let me tell you what I am doing. I am building the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Horseshoe Curve. I have no time to talk to you because they want a tenth of the curve done today. I get payed only $0.25 an hour every day that's not a lot that goes into somebody's pocket. The challenge that we are trying to conquer is the Allegheny mountains.
I am an immigrant from Ireland. I moved to America for a better life. I had no choice this is the only job I could get. I think that they are have us do long gruesome work.
The way to get to the other side of the Allegheny Mountains was by train then canal then Allegheny portage railroad. The Pennsylvania railroad decreased the time it took to get over the Allegheny Mountains
The blueprints for the curve were in a Horseshoe. They planned the curve to be built around the side of the Allegheny mountains. So the trains have to climb an incline of 122 feet. The curve was built to lower the in climb from going straight up to slight in climb. The Pennsylvania railroad must not have had enough money to build a tunnel or something else so they tried making a horseshoe.
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The track we have to carry is long and hard. We have to build 4 curved track right next to each other. Four people have to carry a rail and one person putting in the spike with a sledge hammer in 3 strikes on the first spike. Most people working on the curve were Irish immigrants just like me. The track that we are laying is a seven feet by one feet. And four people have to carry the
Two railway companies competed in this venture: The Central Pacific company laid track eastward from Sacramento, California and at the same time The Union Pacific company began laying track westward from Omaha, Nebraska and when the two lines met, the transcontinental railway would be complete. Each company wanted to cover more ground than the other – not just out of pride and competitiveness, but ...
The Transcontinental Railroad was comprised of nearly eighteen hundred miles of track, much of which was laid by Chinese and Irish immigrants (Immigration 1). Chinese immigrants had settled in California during the Gold Rush but were not allowed to become full citizens (Immigration 1). With the need for labor to work on the railroad, the Chinese were hired, although at a lower rate of pay than Americans and other immigrants (Immigration 1). The Central Pacific Railroad had employed over twelve thousand Chinese workers by 1868. They even set a record, laying ten miles of railroad track in twelve hours (Immigration 1). Over twenty-five thousand Chinese immigrants settled in the United States in 1868 and 1869 and eventually obtained citizenship (Cultural 2). The Union Pacific Railroad employed mainly Irish immigrants, many of whom had served in the Civil War. After the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, many new immigrants settled in the western states and territories. Immigrants who came in through immigration stations, such as Ellis Island, used the Transcontinental Railroad to move to new western towns. The railroad advertised with the hope of attracting European, African, and Russian immigrants to populate small western towns along the
The transcontinental railroad was a 1,800 mile railroad linking Omaha, Missouri with Sacramento, California. This railroad was built through varying environmental conditions including grassy plains, desserts, and mountains such as the Sierra. The railroad revolutionized transportation in the nineteenth century (Galloway 4). The First Transcontinental Railroad was built in the 1860s in order to connect the Eastern and Western coasts of the United States. In the book The Railroads, statistical data describes that “In 1830, 23 miles of railroad track were being operated in the United States; by 1890 that figure had grown to 166,703 miles, as cities and villages were linked across the lan...
Transportation improved from the market revolution through many new inventions, railroads, steamboats, and canals. Pressure for improvements in transportation came at least as much from cities eager to buy as from farmers seeking to sell. The first railroad built was in 1792, it started a spread throughout the states. Cumberland which began to be built in 1811 and finished in 1852, known to be called the national road stretched over five hundred miles from Cumberland to Illinois. By 1821, there were four thousand miles of turnpike in the United States. Turnpikes were not economical to ship bulky goods by land across long distance across America, so another invention came about. Robert Fulton created steam boats in 1807; he named his first one ‘Clermont.’ These steam boats allowed quick travel upriver against the currents, they were also faster and cheaper. The steamboats became a huge innovation with the time travel of five miles per hour. It also stimulated agricultural economy of west by providing better access to markets at lower cost. While steamboats were conquering the western rivers, canals were being constructed in the northeastern states. The firs...
People immediately began to migrate to the area now known as The Great Plains, and populations in the states along the route began to prosper at record percentages. The original railroad sparked inspiration for other tracks that could branch off of the main line and go to other areas of the country. By the year 1893, there were about four different transcontinental railroads and modifications were made to the original cars, such as a freezer box that was designed to keep crops fresh during the few day voyage. This new improvement also provided the country with several new jobs that were never needed before. All areas such as construction, maintenance, and operation workers were now needed to ensure that things went the way they were supposed to and that the hard work and dedication that went into this six year project did not go to a waste and give the opposite effect than
During the reconstruction of America after the Civil War, the government allocated land grants and premiums to encourage work on the railroads, which proved effective. However, such incentives led to a questionable quality of work. Land donations and loans offered to both companies would eventually become profitable with the addition of railroad tracks running through, and the la...
The Pony Express helped the two coasts connect. It traveled to St.Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento ,California. The mail system was the fastest at that period in time. It was faster than stagecoaches and steamboats. Traveling across the country in ten days or less depending on the distance. With four-hundred fast horses, one-hundred and ninety stations, and about eighty riders. People could connect with loved ones who have moved or tell important people about wars coming, or news about the government. The Pony Express helped people get the word travel faster than it ever has before.
Roads, steamboats, canals, and railroads lowered the cost and shortened the time of travel. By making these improvements, products could be shipped into other areas for profit (Roark, 260). Steamboats set off a huge industry and by 1830, more than 700 steamboats were operating up and down the Ohio and Mississippi River (Roark, 261). Steamboats also had some flaws, due to the fact of deforesting the paths along the rivers. Wood was needed to refuel the power to the boat.
Travel by land and water was both tedious and expensive. Transporting one ton of goods across states would cost around 100 dollars or 1,265 dollars in today’s money. In the 1790s, land routes connecting the east coast and the farther western regions of the United States were undeveloped. Along with this, when weather conditions were poor land routes could not support any sort of dependable shipping by wagon, or even travel by horseback. Natural waterways provided the most dependable method of transport west of Albany. Even travel by waterway in this time period was inconvenient because these water routes were unreliable due to shallow water and raging rapids.
Mother earth has gone through a lot of changes throughout its four and a half billion-year existence. Earth has seen many different climates and many different species. Because of these changes geologists have broken earths history into different time periods. One such time period was the Pennsylvanian time period. The Pennsylvanian time period is a subdivision of the Carboniferous period. The Pennsylvanian period saw the introduction of many different species that are still present today along with a very different climate and different geographical features than are present today.
The undertaking of a project as large as building a railroad across the expanse of the United States seemed impossible and way too expensive for any railway companies to undertake; therefore, in the early/mid 1800’s, railway companies and business people began approaching legislators in an attempt to convince them to support railroad expansion. This, combined with economic necessity, helped to pass the first of several land grant bills. The bills entailed the gifting of public land to railroad companies in exchange for railroad track being laid in designated areas. The land that was not used for track was then sold. Both railroad companies and the government gained from this. The land where track was laid also became more valuable and the profit that was made from the sale of the land was used to pay for materials and labor to continue the railroad expansion. (Railroad Land Grants).
The 205-thousand-square-mile Appalachian Mountain range, which spans from Eastern Canada to northern Alabama, boasts North America’s oldest mountains (formed approximately 400 million years ago), the highest peak of the eastern United States (Mount Mitchell), industrial production opportunities and leisurely recreation. The range includes the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Great Smoky mountains (NCSU, n.d.). A range of recreational activities such as fishing in freshwater streams, camping, biking the Blue Ridge Parkway, skiing and hiking are available in the region. One popular hiking location is the 2,184-mile Appalachian Natural Scenic Trail, which is the longest walking trail in the eastern United States (United States. National Park Service, 2014). Its rich natural capital offers a plethora of resources, allowing production to range from small-scale agricultural establishments to larger industrial outputs of metal and timber. Approximately 80 percent of land has been used for the coal and logging industry since the 90’s (Little, 1995). Though the commercial utilization of the mountains has boosted the economy of Appalachian towns and cities, it has also degraded the range aesthetically and commercially.
To get an idea of what the Appalachian Trail looks like it is important to understand its description. The trail spans from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Northern Maine
From experience, there was an awful employment obstruction for many Americans. In 2007, thousands of these Americans who occupied employment with various occupational industries were forced to leave their jobs. Several occupational industries relocated their business to foreign countries, leaving a large unemployment status behind in America.
The first railroad in the United States was built in 1764 in Lewiston, New York. It was a gravity railroad (works with a system of poles and doesn’t need a locomotive) that was used to transport products between the British troops. After 1829 when the first locomotive was incorporated in the country, the railroad industry experienced a great development and many businesses developed with it. The presence of railroads stimulated commerce . Many goods were transported from city to city. The most common ones were cotton (from south to north) and food. This food that was shipped was transported mostly from south to north. Other products like fuel and wood or building materials were transported from north to south. Also gold and fuel was transported from western US to eastern US.