1. The Age of the Railroads

2. ● Completed in 1869, it was the first railroad to extend from the east coast to the west coast. Met in Promentory, UT. o Central Pacific and Union Pacific Transcontinental Railroad

3. ● Chinese and Irish immigrants ● Civil War veterans ● Pay o $40-60/month for Whites o $35/month for Blacks and Chinese Employees of the Railroads

4. ● Local times interfered with railroad efficiency ● C.F. Dowd ● Proposed that the earth’s surface be divided into 24 time zones Railroad Time

5. ● The railroads allowed for specialization o Ex: Chicago’s stockyards, Minneapolis’s grain ● New towns sprang up along the rail lines o Denver, Flagstaff, Seattle Trade and Towns

6. ● Built a factory for manufacturing railroad cars on the prairie of Illinois. o Developed the idea of a company town George M. Pullman

7. ● A dummy company set up by the railroads to embezzle money o Given contracts to lay track and grossly inflated prices o Many federal officials, including Vice-President Schulyer Colfax and future president James Garfield were implicated Credit Mobilier

8. ● Railroads inflated and fixed their prices to keep farmers in their debt ● Grangers o An organization farmers used to combat the power of the railroads by advocating government control of the industry Farmers and the Railroads

9. ● The 1877 court case that upheld the government’s right to regulate the railroads Munn v. Illinois

10. ● 1886-Supreme Court reverses its decision in Munn v. Illinois Interstate Commerce Act ● Passed by Congress in 1887 to re- establish the right of the federal government to regulate the railroad Wait, reverse that...

11. ● Railroads drove the economy ● As they began to lose money, the national economy plunged ● By the end of 1893: o 600 banks failed o 15,000 businesses failed o 3 million people laid off ● Consolidation of the railroads Panic of 1893