Railroads in USA.

Railroads in USA. Industrialization is coming.

By Carla Castro

Beginnings of American Railroads

• Native American were forced to give up their land.

• The building of the two Transcontinental Railroads did more to defeat the Indians than the campaigns of the soldiers.

Which were the first ones?

• In the middle of the nineteenths The American Government hired Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railway Company to extend railways across the United States.

• Central Pacific – Started in Sacramento

• Union Pacific – Started in Omaha

The Union Pacific and The Northern Pacific Railroads

Expansion Westwards.

Westward Expansion

• Homestead Act, land to American families.

• Purchasing of Land directly from the Government.

Railroadmania.

Before the war, rail travel from New York to Chicago had been barely possible.

Western railroads, Pennsylvania Railroad, The Erie Railroad, and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads completed connections with Chicago.

Economical Growth.

The simultaneous coordination and consolidation of rail-lines were economically significant.

Chicago.

The railroads were the most important thing that happened to Chicago between 1848 and 1856. Chicago was a center of ten main railroad lines. One hundred trains came and went per day. The railroads became Chicago's first major industry and the canal became the second. Chicago quickly became the largest railroad center and then the largest city in Illinois. Chicago started out with about one hundred people and now has about 3,000,000.

During the American Civil War in 1861-1865, cattle started pouring into Chicago's stockyards from the west, transported by railroads. Many things were transported to Chicago by train such as copper, iron, farm products, crops, and meat such as pigs. The first train that came to Chicago carried wheat from farms to the west for about 10 miles. In 1865 the Union Stockyards were completed. As the grain trade grew, the nation's most important grain market became the Chicago Board of Trade. Quickly, the city's manufacturing industries grew.

Necessity for Grain.

With the growth of American cities, the domestic demand for grain constantly increased.

Great Britain was becoming more dependent on American Harvests.

Andrew Carnegie.

A poor Scottish immigrant who became a wealthy man investing in railroads.