Growth of Railroads and Agriculture

Railroads lead the way

by Erik Hauck

​The Transcontinental Railroad

​The Transcontinental Railroad was finished in 1868. Building railroads continued throughout the last half of the 1800s. This powered the economy. In 1860 the U.S. already had about 30,000 miles of railroads.

Multiple Choice

By 1900 the total mile of railroads was 

• 50,000 miles

• 100,000 miles

• 193,00 miles

• 75,000 miles

Open Ended

How do you think more railways leads to economic growth?

​Railways Aid Economic Growth

​Railroads carried raw materials such as iron, coal and timber to factories. They moved manufactured goods from factories to markets. They also shipped crops from farming areas to the cities

Multiple Select

How did railroads lead to economic growth?

• carried raw materials like coal and timber to factories

• moved manufactured goods from factories to market

• Shipped crops  from farming areas to cities

Multiple Select

Why do you think the railway industry lead to the growth of the steel industry , timber industry and coal industry.

• steel replaced iron for tracks

• timber was needed for railway ties

• Coal was needed to power trains

​A National Rail System

​The first railroads only covered a small area. Different railroads used different gauges of rails. Trains of one railroad could not use another's line's track. Railway companies began using standard gauge. The use of standard gauge drove down shipping costs and time to ship goods.

Open Ended

Critical thinking!

How could railways using the same size of rails lead to lower cost of shipping?

​Standardize Railways

​Before standardized rails, workers were needed to unload goods from one train and move them to another. This was costly and inefficient. With Standard rail size, workers were no longer need to unload and load goods from one train company to another.

​Combining Railroads

​Along with expansion of railroads came consolidation.

Multiple Choice

What does consolidation mean (you had this as a vocabulary term)?

• The practice of combining different companies  into one.

• Adding more companies

• agreement between railways to set rates

• a discount or return of part payment

​Railroads Consolidate

​Large Railroads companies bought smaller companies or drove them out of business. Consolidation made large companies more efficient. Consolidation allowed a few companies to control an entire industry.

Open Ended

What was one advantage and disadvantage of consolidation?

​Rail Road Barons

​Railroad Barons were a few powerful individuals gained control of the nation's railroads. Cornelius Vanderbilt was the first railroad baron. His railroad empire stretched from New York City to the Great Lakes.

Multiple Choice

A Railroad Baron was what?

• a person who ones a lot of land

• a person who owns a factory

• a person who ones a small railroad line

• Someone who ones a huge railway line.

​Railroads compete for customers

​Railroad companies competed forcustomers. Large railroads offered discounts called rebates to their biggest customers. Small railroads who could not compete were forced out of business. Railroad barons also made secret agreements with one another to form pools. The companies in a pool divided up business among themselves and sent identical rates. This eliminated competition that might drive down rates.

Open Ended

What tactics did Robber barons use to drive out competitors?

​Railroads Change Time

​Because of railroads, standard time was created and the continental United States was divided into four time zones.

Open Ended

Why do you think they created time zones because of the railroads?