The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad
The 1850s were a time of large westward expansion in the United States. Events such as the Gold Rush in California motivated many Americans to move west and to try and achieve economic prosperity. However, traveling westward over land was dangerous, since there were lots of difficult terrain such as deserts and mountains. Many migrants chose to travel by sea, although this was not much easier. Travelers would be forced to take a six month journey around the tip of South America, or risk catching diseases and going through Panama and then taking a ship to California.
In order to remedy this issue, Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862, which authorized the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. This act chartered two companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, to facilitate the construction of the railroad. The two companies met on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah.
The Transcontinental Railroad heavily impacted American life. Before the railroad, it took almost six months and costed $1000 to travel from New York to California. After the railroad’s completion, travel would cost only $150 and take only one week. This expedited the process of Manifest Destination and furthered the American desire to control all the land from the east to the west coast.
After 1869, people and goods could freely move across the entire country must faster than previously possible. This created a large national market for materials and manufactured products. Within ten years of completion, the railroad would transport 50 million dollars worth of goods every year.
Constructing the railroad could not have been done without immigrants, who did many of the most dangerous jobs for very minimal pay. Chinese laborers which made up a large part of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, had to use explosives to blow tunnels through the Sierra Nevadas, which was a very dangerous job. The Irish immigrants working for the Union Pacific experienced many Native American attacks. After it’s completion, companies encouraged many eastern settlers and immigrants to use the railroad system to move west. This influx of immigrants in the west fostered lots of growth.
However, not all the changes that occurred were positive. Many Native Americans saw the loss of the lands promised to them by the federal government, as well as the loss of many vital resources such as the buffalo. In addition, the influx of immigrants would prompt a wave of nativism, which would result in legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Although the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad had both positive and negative results, it is undeniable that the impact on the United States was enormous. The economic impact and the growth of market would help fuel the growth of industry that would eventually lead to American industrialization. In addition, immigration and racism would also come to be pervasive issues that would plague the future of the United States.
Sources:
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/railroads.html
Great post Jerry, the Transcontinental Railroad has certainly had a huge impact on the United States. One of its major environmental effects was on the North American buffalo population, which at one point reached 20 to 30 million between the Appalachians and the Rockies. However, many railroad passengers enjoyed shooting them for sport, and buffalo hunting became so popular that the buffalo population was reduced to just 1,091 by 1889. Although their numbers have recently rebounded to 500,000 in North America, they will likely never rebound to what they used to be.
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https://defenders.org/bison/basic-facts
Jerry, I thought that you provided really insightful information to both the positive and negative impacts that resulted from the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. One additional negative consequence was that the environment was damaged due to the construction of the railroad. There was a significant cost in natural resources, and untouched land was destroyed. It was estimated that in the 1860's, 1/3 of the state's forests were completely gone. Additionally, the transcontinental railroad also led to industrialization, which caused pollution. Due to the negative impacts on the environment, this led to increased sentiment towards preserving land and national parks as seen during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency.
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