1. Chapter 5: Industrialization
Section 2: The Railroads
SPOTLIGHT VIDEO

2. The Transcontinental Railroad
Began in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act.
Connected the nation East to West.
Competition between 2 RR companies:
Union Pacific RR
Central Pacific RR

3. Transcontinental RR Union Pacific RR Central Pacific RR
Engineer: Greenville Dodge
Started in Omaha, NE & pushed West
Workers faced bad weather, angry Native Am.
Labor, $ & Engineering problems.
Workforce: Civil war vets, miners, framers, ex-convicts.
Central Pacific RR
Started in Sacramento, CA.
Owned by the “Big Four”
Grocer: Leland Stanford
Shop owner: Charley Crocker
Hardware store owners: Mark Hopkins & Collis P. Huntington
Hired 10,000 Chinese immigrants & paid them about $1.00/day.

4. The Last Spike Promontory, UT Where two RR came together &
final spike was Golden.
Despite Physical challenges,
took 4 years to complete.
1 mile of track: 400 rails;
10 spikes per rail.
CP RR = 688 miles of track
UP RR = 1,086 miles of track

5. Railroads Spur Growth Railroads linked the nation and
increased the markets for many products.
Railroads spent HUGE amounts of $ on steel, coal & timber
Smaller RR companies were combined into large RR corporations.
Cornelius Vanderbilt—one of most successful RR moguls.

6. RR’s spur growth (cont’d)
Increase safety on the rails, American Railway Association divided country into 4 time zones.
Eastern, Central, Mountain, & Pacific.
New locomotive technology
Invention of air brakes, longer/heavier trains
Travel is now faster & cheaper
Rail network helped unite Americans.

7. Robber Barons RR cost lots of money, so the
Govt. gave companies land grants.
federal govt program gave more than 120 acres to RR companies.
RR Entrepreneurs made a great deal of $ and this caused lots of corruption & bribery.
Jay Gould– one of the most notorious & corrupt RR owners.

8. The Credit Mobilier Scandal
One of the biggest RR industry scandals
Construction company working for/with Union pacific RR signing contracts with them selves.
When the RR was about to go bankrupt, they offered congress shares of the company in exchange for more land grant.
Exposed during the election of 1872.

9. The Great Northern Railroad
Ran from Saint Paul, MN to Seattle, WA.
Headed by James J. Hill
Only privately funded transcontinental RR-no land grants were given.
Offered low fares to homesteaders & later sold the homesteads.
Most successful TRR & the only
one not forced into
bankruptcy.

10. Assessment How did technology help unify the U.S.?
Why was the country divided into four (4) time zones?
How was the Great Northern different from other RR?
Writing: You are an employee of a major RR company. Your job is to write an advertisement to recruit workers for your corporation.