The Age of the Railroads

The Age of the Railroads

by Hannah Hunt

Multiple Choice

The railroad industry ______________ after the Civil War.

• decreased

• increased

​Railroads Span Time & Space

• ​Rails made local travel reliable & westward expansion possible for people and business

  • ​The gov't realized how important their expansion is to the nation

    • ​To support the expansion huge land grants & loans for railroad companies were given

Poll

Could these land grants and loans cause issues in America?

• Yes

• No

​A National Network

• ​By 1856, the railroads extended passed the Mississippi River

  • ​3 years later, the railroad moved west across the Missouri River

    • ​10 years later, the US cheered for the first transcontinental railroad (May 10, 1869)

​Transcontinental Railroad: a railroad linking the Atlantic & Pacific coasts of the United States

Multiple Choice

What color is the Union Pacific railroad on the map?

• Red

• Orange

• Green

• Blue

​Romance, Reality and Time

• ​The railroads brought dreams of land, adventure, & a fresh start for many Americans

  • ​the Central Pacific railroad used Chinese immigrants as a labor force to assemble the railroad

  • ​The Union Pacific hired Irish immigrants & out of work civil war vets as their labor force

    • ​life working for the railroad was rough and long work.

• ​Despite hard working conditions, the railroads unified a diverse country

  • ​Although everything was linked, communities operated on their own time

  • ​To solve the time issue, in 1869 the Earth was divided into 24 time zones

    • ​the US contains Eastern, Central Mountain & Pacific time zones

Multiple Choice

What time zone is Ohio in?

• Pacific 

• Mountain

• Central 

• Eastern 

​Opportunities & Opportunists

• ​The growth of the railroads inspired industry such as iron, coal, steel, lumber & glass to grow rapidly

  • ​the industry growth fostered the growth of towns

​New Towns, Markets & Pullman

• ​The railroads promoted trade and interdependence

  • ​National networks established supplies & markets for specialized goods

• ​The railroads helped cities not only grow but branch out

  • ​In 1880, George M. Pullman built a factory for manufacturing sleepers & other railroad cars

    • ​Pullman built towns for his employees near the factory

Multiple Choice

What things can Pullman control with the establishment of his towns?

• Rent prices

• Work Hours

• Employee wages

• all of the above

​The Grange & the Railroads

• ​the Grangers, members of the Grange farmer organization, demanded gov't control of the railroads

• ​Railroad Abuses

  • ​Misuse of gov't land grants, charging different prices for customers and different rates for products

Open Ended

How are the railroads able to get away with charging different prices for different people?

​Granger Laws and Interstate Commerce

• ​in 1871, Illinois passed laws to protect the peoples interest

  • ​The laws authorized a commission "to establish maximum freight & passenger rates & prohibit discrimination"

    ​The railroads fought back and took their case to the Supreme Court

​Munn v. Illinois: an 1877 case in which the Supreme Court upheld states regulation of the railroads for the benefit of farmers & consumers.

• ​the Grangers triumph was short lived when the Supreme Court ruled the states could not set rates on interstate commerce

  • ​the public was outraged so Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act

​Interstate Commerce Act: a law enacted in 1887, the reestablished the federal gov'ts right to supervise railroad activities & created a 5 member group

Poll

Do you think that states should be able to regulate trade when it crosses stateliness?

• yes

• no