1. Industrial America

2. Reasons For Industrial Boom
Wealth of natural resources
Government support for business
Growing urban population
Cheap labor
Market for goods

3. Black Gold Edwin Drake drills for oil
Oil boom begins and spreads across Midwest
Refining industries turned oil into kerosene
Gasoline comes from this process

4. Steel Bessemer Process Steel changes the nature of the nation
Injects air into iron to remove carbon
Steel changes the nature of the nation
Brooklyn Bridge
Skyscrapers

5. Railroads Transcontinental Railroad completed in 1869
Speed up and expand travel and business
Time zones created
“Railroad time”

6. Railroads Promoted trade between previously independent towns
Railroads demanded more resources
Towns specializing in products
Chicago-stockyards
Communities along rail lines

7. Pullman George Pullman makes a town by his rail line for employees
Strictly controlled their lives leading to a strike
Profit and control

8. Credit Mobilier Railroad company creates construction company
Applies for a contract to build their railroad with their company
Subsidized by federal government
Pocketed the profits
Gave stocks to members of Congress

9. Granger Laws Frustrated by corruption farmers pressed for regulation
Railroads challenged these new regulations
Munn v. Illinois

10. Interstate Commerce Act
Federal government can supervise railroads
5 member ICC to regulate
Not effective at first

11. Panic of 1893
Mismanagement, competition, and overbuilding cause railroads to go bankrupt
Investment firms bought up the railroads
Monopolies