2. The Age of the Railroads Mr. Leasure American History Buckeye Local High School #MBLGA #RTR

3. Railroads Span Time and Space Rails made local transit reliable and westward expansion possible for business as well as for people. #MBLGA #RTR

4. Railroads Span Time and Space Realizing how important railroads were for settling the West and developing the country, the government made huge land grants and loans to the railroad companies. #MBLGA #RTR

5. Railroads Span Time and Space By 1856, railroads extended west to the Mississippi River, and three years later, they crossed the Missouri. #MBLGA #RTR

6. Railroads Span Time and Space #MBLGA #RTR

7. Railroads Span Time and Space Just over a decade later, crowds across the US cheered as the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. #MBLGA #RTR

8. Railroads Span Time and Space A golden spike marked the spanning of the nation by the first transcontinental railroad. #MBLGA #RTR

9. Railroads Span Time and Space #MBLGA #RTR

10. Railroads Span Time and Space #MBLGA #RTR

11. Railroads Span Time and Space The railroads brought the dreams of available land, adventure, and a fresh start to many Americans. #MBLGA #RTR

12. Railroads Span Time and Space This was made possible, only by the harsh lives of the thousands of railroad workers. #MBLGA #RTR

13. Railroads Span Time and Space #MBLGA #RTR

14. Railroads Span Time and Space The Central Pacific Railroad employed thousands of Chinese immigrants. #MBLGA #RTR

15. Railroads Span Time and Space The Union Pacific Railroad hired Irish immigrants and out-of-work Civil War veterans. #MBLGA #RTR

16. Railroads Span Time and Space Accidents and diseases disabled and killed thousands of men each year. #MBLGA #RTR

17. Railroads Span Time and Space Before the transcontinental railroads, each local community operated on their own time, with noon when the sun was directly overhead. #MBLGA #RTR

18. Railroads Span Time and Space For example, noon in Boston was 12 minutes sooner than noon in New York City. #MBLGA #RTR

19. Railroads Span Time and Space In 1869, to remedy this problem, the Professor C.F. Dowd proposed the earth should be divided into 24 equal parts – one for each hour of the day. #MBLGA #RTR

20. Railroads Span Time and Space #MBLGA #RTR

21. Railroads Span Time and Space Under this plan, at the time, the U.S. would contain our four time zones – the Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones. #MBLGA #RTR

22. Railroads Span Time and Space #MBLGA #RTR

23. Railroads Span Time and Space On November 18, 1883, railroad crews and towns across the country synchronized their clocks and watches in the United States. #MBLGA #RTR

24. Railroads Span Time and Space In 1884, an international conference set worldwide time zones that incorporated railroad time. #MBLGA #RTR

25. Railroads Span Time and Space The United States did not officially adopt railroad time as standard time until 1918. #MBLGA #RTR

26. Opportunities and Opportunist By linking previously isolated cities, towns, and settlements, the railroads promoted trade and independence. #MBLGA #RTR

27. Opportunities and Opportunist As part of the nationwide network of suppliers and markets, individual towns began to specialize in particular products. #MBLGA #RTR

28. Opportunities and Opportunist The railroads helped cities not only grow up but but branch out. #MBLGA #RTR

29. Opportunities and Opportunist In 1880, George Pullman built a factory for manufacturing sleepers and other railroad cars in Illinois. #MBLGA #RTR

30. Opportunities and Opportunist Pullman provided for all his his workers basic needs in the town of Pullman. #MBLGA #RTR

31. Opportunities and Opportunist They were provided clean, well- constructed brick homes and apartment buildings with at least one window in every room. #MBLGA #RTR

32. Opportunities and Opportunist The town also offered other services such as a doctors office, shops, and athletic fields. #MBLGA #RTR

33. Opportunities and Opportunist The town remained under the tight control of the Pullman company and residents were not allowed to drink alcohol. #MBLGA #RTR

34. Opportunities and Opportunist The town remained under the tight control of the Pullman company and residents were not allowed to drink alcohol. #MBLGA #RTR

35. The Grange and the Railroads In 1867, a farmers organization known as The Grange, began demanding government control over the railroad industry. #MBLGA #RTR

36. The Grange and the Railroads Farmers were angry with railroad companies for a lot of reasons. #MBLGA #RTR

37. The Grange and the Railroads The railroads entered formal agreements with each other to fix prices, which kept farmers in debt. #MBLGA #RTR

38. The Grange and the Railroads The railroads would charge different customers different rates, often demanding more money fro short hauls. #MBLGA #RTR

39. The Grange and the Railroads The farmer had to pay more money for shorter hauls because there were not alternative railroads to haul short distances. #MBLGA #RTR

40. The Grange and the Railroads The Grangers took political action and sponsored local and state candidates to enact price controls on the railroad companies. #MBLGA #RTR

41. The Grange and the Railroads The Grangers were successful and the Supreme Court upheld that state governments could regulate railroad companies. #MBLGA #RTR

42. The Grange and the Railroads The Grangers helped established an important principal in the U.S.- the federal government’s right to regulate private industry to serve public interest. #MBLGA #RTR

43. The Grange and the Railroads In 1886, the SCOTUS ruled a state could not regulate train prices for trains that traveled from state to state. #MBLGA #RTR

44. The Grange and the Railroads In response, the federal government established the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. #MBLGA #RTR

45. The Grange and the Railroads This act established the right of the federal government to supervise railroad activities. #MBLGA #RTR

46. The Grange and the Railroads Corporate abuses, mismanagement, overbuilding, and competition pushed many railroads to the brink of bankruptcy. #MBLGA #RTR

47. The Grange and the Railroads The panic of 1893 was the worst depression the nation had suffered up to this time. #MBLGA #RTR

48. The Grange and the Railroads 600 banks and 15,000 businesses had failed and 4 million people had lost their jobs. #MBLGA #RTR

49. The Grange and the Railroads Large financial companies had taken over the railroads and seven powerful companies held control over two-thirds of all the nations railroad tracks. #MBLGA #RTR