​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

​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

​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

​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

​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

​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