Reference
- RailroadsThe railroad's basic principle—lessening the power needed to move objects over land by putting them on rails—had been used since the late eighteenth century, but the railroad took on its modern form in the late 1820s when steam locomotives came into use. English engineers established an early lead in this development, but Americans quickly caught up, often by visiting England to examine the latest innovations. By the 1830s, civil and military engineers such as Horatio Allen, Major William Gibbs McNeill, and Moncure Robinson had become railroad experts in their own right.
As in Europe, the earliest American railroads—for instance, the Granite Railway in Quincy, Massachusetts, of 1826—were powered by horses, and well into the 1830s the superiority of steam-powered railroads remained an open question. Not only were steam railroads expensive to build and technologically complex, but the country had recently embarked on a canal-building boom, sparked by construction of the Erie Canal. As coastal cities from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina, weighed transportation projects that would enable them to compete with New York City for western markets, experts debated the relative utility of canals and waterways versus steam-powered railroads. Pennsylvania pushed ahead with its Main Line canal system, linking Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, but steam power gradually prevailed, even though water transport generally remained cheaper than alternatives and could also be propelled by steam. Construction of the first U.S. passenger railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio, began on 4 July 1828. Work proceeded slowly, however, and the first long-distance railroad actually brought into operation, in 1833, was the 136-mile South Carolina Canal and Railroad.
By 1840 a distinctive so-called American system of railroad construction had emerged, characterized by economy of construction necessitated by capital scarcity: the builders minimized excavation and substituted wood for iron wherever possible, including in the rails themselves. This resulted in railroads of shoddy construction that had sharp curves and steep grades, as well as comparatively high operating costs and low speeds. Although a wide diversity of construction styles marked U.S. railroad development, this American system of construction proved especially attractive when the terrain was rough, distances were long, or capital was scarce. The first locomotives were English imports, but a style more appropriate to the United States soon developed—powerful enough to haul heavy loads up steep grades and with swiveling front wheels to handle sharp curves.
From the 1830s, construction proceeded rapidly and absorbed increasing amounts of capital. By 1850, canal mileage had leveled off at about 3,700 miles, while the nation boasted 9,000 miles of railroads. Railroad investment, meanwhile, climbed from an estimated $96 million in 1839 to some $300 million in 1850. New England claimed the greatest density of lines, but construction proceeded throughout the country. The largest firms soon commanded capital in the tens of millions, and by the mid-1850s four trunk-line railroads stretched from northeastern coastal cities into the Old Northwest. By 1860, American railroads had more than tripled in length, to some 30,000 miles, while investment soared to more than $1 billion. Nearly all the railroad mileage built prior to the Civil War connected localities and states that were developed economically with productive farms and rising industries. Such railroads enjoyed steady freight and passenger traffic and hence the prospect of underwriting their capital costs and even earning profits.
Sectional conflict delayed transcontinental railroad construction until after the Civil War, but four lines were chartered between 1862 and 1871. The first was completed on 10 May 1869 when the Central Pacific Railroad of Collis P. Huntington and Leland Stanford, building from California eastward, met the Union Pacific at Promontory, Utah. The rail system tripled in size again by 1880, reaching more than 90,000 miles as railroad capital exceeded $5 billion. Over the next two decades, net growth continued—turbulently and well beyond need. James J. Hill's Great Northern Railroad, based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, reached Seattle, Washington, in 1893. In 1900, American railroads totaled more than 190,000 miles and claimed a net capitalization of nearly $10 billion. Rail expansion peaked in 1920 at more than a quarter of a million miles; net capitalization rose for another decade before beginning to decline. - steam engineEngine powered by steam. Steam, generated by heating water, is used to produce movement. In some engines, the steam forces pistons to move along cylinders. This results in a reciprocating (back-and-forth) motion. A mechanism usually changes this into rotary motion. Steam locomotives use reciprocating engines. Steam turbines are engines that produce rotary motion directly by using the steam to turn sets of fan-like wheels. In any steam engine, some of the heat used to turn water into steam in a boiler converts into energy of motion. The heat may be produced by burning fuel in a furnace, or may come from a nuclear reactor. The first steam engine, invented by Thomas Savery in 1689, was a form of pump, used to remove water from mines. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen invented a steam-operated pump with pistons. From the 1760s, James Watt improved on Newcomen's ideas and produced more efficient steam engines. This led to the use of steam engines to power machinery in factories. In 1884, English engineer Charles Parsons invented the first practical steam turbine. His machines were so efficient that turbines soon started to replace reciprocating steam engines in power stations.
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Perspectives
Rival Rails
From acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman comes a dazzling account of the battle to build America's transcontinental rail lines. Rival Rails is an action-packed epic of how an empire was born--and the remarkable men who made it happen. After the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the rest of the country was up for grabs, and the race was on. The prize: a better, shorter, less snowy route through the corridors of the American Southwest, linking Los Angeles to Chicago. In Rival Rails, Borneman lays out in compelling detail the sectional rivalries, contested routes, political posturing, and ambitious business dealings that unfolded as an increasing number of lines pushed their way across the country. Borneman brings to life the legendary business geniuses and so-called robber barons who made millions and fought the elements--and one another--to move America, including William Jackson Palmer, whose leadership of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad relied on innovative narrow gauge trains that could climb steeper grades and take tighter curves; Collis P. Huntington of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific lines, a magnate insatiably obsessed with trains--and who was not above bribing congressmen to satisfy his passion; Edward Payson Ripley, visionary president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, whose fiscal conservatism and smarts brought the industry back from the brink; and Jay Gould, ultrasecretive, strong-armer and one-man powerhouse. In addition, Borneman captures the herculean efforts required to construct these roads--the laborers who did the back-breaking work, boring tunnels through mountains and throwing bridges across unruly rivers, the brakemen who ran atop moving cars, the tracklayers crushed and killed by runaway trains. From backroom deals in Washington, D.C., to armed robberies of trains in the wild deserts, from glorified cattle cars to streamliners and Super Chiefs, all the great incidents and innovations of a mighty American era are re-created with unprecedented power in Rival Rails.
The Most Powerful Idea in the World
If all measures of human advancement in the last hundred centuries were plotted on a graph, they would show an almost perfectly flat line--until the eighteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution would cause the line to shoot straight up, beginning an almost uninterrupted march of progress. In The Most Powerful Idea in the World, William Rosen tells the story of the men responsible for the Industrial Revolution and the machine that drove it--the steam engine. In the process he tackles the question that has obsessed historians ever since: What made eighteenth-century Britain such fertile soil for inventors? Rosen's answer focuses on a simple notion that had become enshrined in British law the century before: that people had the right to own and profit from their ideas. The result was a period of frantic innovation revolving particularly around the promise of steam power. Rosen traces the steam engine's history from its early days as a clumsy but sturdy machine, to its coming-of-age driving the wheels of mills and factories, to its maturity as a transporter for people and freight by rail and by sea. Along the way we enter the minds of such inventors as Thomas Newcomen and James Watt, scientists including Robert Boyle and Joseph Black, and philosophers John Locke and Adam Smith--all of whose insights, tenacity, and ideas transformed first a nation and then the world. William Rosen is a masterly storyteller with a keen eye for the "aha!" moments of invention and a gift for clear and entertaining explanations of science. The Most Powerful Idea in the World will appeal to readers fascinated with history, science, and the hows and whys of innovation itself.
Merging Lines
Why did American railroads decline from the glory days of the early twentieth century? Why did so many railroad mergers in the 1950s and 1960s, intended as a panacea for the ills of an outdated system, go sour and, in fact, make a bad situation worse? Saunders addresses these and many other issues in this authoritative history of U.S. railroads and their corporate mergers. Beginning with a wide-ranging analysis of the role of railroads in the economic and social fabric of American life, Saunders traces the causes and results of the twentieth century's "merger mania." Mergers, he explains, were expected to save money, to improve service to customers, and to help railroads compete against other modes of transportation, such as the growing airline and trucking industries. Saunders then gives colorful, richly detailed accounts of the mergers and shows the reasons--including corporate greed and the inept blundering of government regulatory agencies--the outcomes fell far short of expectations. Merging Lines explores the impact of shifting political control of railroads as no history has done before. The fates of both workers and railroad companies were dictated by the rise and fall of business and governmental leaders, including Bill Brosnan, Robert R. Young, Alfred Perlman, President John F. Kennedy, and President Lyndon B. Johnson. As power struggles erupted, the original goals of the mergers were thwarted by consumer frustration, violent labor strikes, and organizational collapse. Saunders explores these and other crucial developments in this extensive work, carefully designed for railroad historians and enthusiasts at any level. Encyclopedic in its scope, Merging Lines includes sixty-eight maps, a list of court cases involving railroad mergers, and a wealth of information on American railroads from coast to coast. An extensively revised, updated, and supplemented edition of Saunders's earlier classic, The Railroad Mergers and the Coming of Conrail (1978), it is essential reading for all who are interested in railroad and transportation history.
Railroads and American Law
No enterprise is so seductive as a railroad for the influence it exerts, the power it gives, and the hope of gain it offers.--Poor's Manual of Railroads (1900 At its peak, the railroad was the Internet of its day in its transformative impact on American life and law. A harbinger and promoter of economic empire, it was also the icon of a technological revolution that accelerated national expansion and in the process transformed our legal system. James W. Ely Jr., in the first comprehensive legal history of the rail industry, shows that the two institutions--the railroad and American law--had a profound influence on each other. Ely chronicles how "America's first big business" impelled the creation of a vast array of new laws in a country where long-distance internal transport had previously been limited to canals and turnpikes. Railroads, the first major industry to experience extensive regulation, brought about significant legal innovations governing interstate commerce, eminent domain, private property, labor relations, and much more. Much of this development was originally designed to serve the interests of the railroads themselves but gradually came to contest and control the industry's power and exploitative tendencies. As Ely reveals, despite its great promise and potential as an engine of prosperity and uniter of far-flung regions, the railroad was not universally admired. Railroads uprooted people, threatened local autonomy, and posed dangers to employees and the public alike--situations with unprecedented legal ramifications. Ely explores the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which those ramifications played out, as railroads crossed state lines and knitted together a diverse nation with thousands of miles of iron rail. Epic in its scope, Railroads and American Law makes a complex subject accessible to a wide range of readers, from legal historians to railroad buffs, and shows the many ways in which a powerful industry brought change and innovation to America.
Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877
For one week in late July of 1877, America shook with anger and fear as a variety of urban residents, mostly working class, attacked railroad property in dozens of towns and cities. The Great Strike of 1877 was one of the largest and most violent urban uprisings in American history. Whereas most historians treat the event solely as a massive labor strike that targeted the railroads, David O. Stowell examines America's predicament more broadly to uncover the roots of this rebellion. He studies the urban origins of the Strike in three upstate New York cities--Buffalo, Albany, and Syracuse. He finds that locomotives rumbled through crowded urban spaces, sending panicked horses and their wagons careening through streets. Hundreds of people were killed and injured with appalling regularity. The trains also disrupted street traffic and obstructed certain forms of commerce. For these reasons, Stowell argues, The Great Strike was not simply an uprising fueled by disgruntled workers. Rather, it was a grave reflection of one of the most direct and damaging ways many people experienced the Industrial Revolution. "Through meticulously crafted case studies . . . the author advances the thesis that the strike had urban roots, that in substantial part it represented a community uprising. . . .A particular strength of the book is Stowell's description of the horrendous accidents, the toll in human life, and the continual disruption of craft, business, and ordinary movement engendered by building railroads into the heart of cities."--Charles N. Glaab, American Historical Review
Online Resources
- The First U.S. Transcontinental Railroad: Expected Profits and Government InterventionConstruction of the first transcontinental railroad, financed with large federal subsidies, is an important event in American history. Were the subsidies necessary to induce private investment in the railroad? The ex-ante investment decision examined uses contemporary reports and a simulation model to show that investors expected the railroad to be profitable. Evidence also shows that the railroad created political conflicts in Congress between the North and South. The secession removed the South as a disputant in Congress, reducing short-term political conflict but not long-term conflict. Subsidies reduced political risk, rather than transport market failure, and encouraged private investment.
- Interpreting Chinese Worker Camps on the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit, UtahThe first transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah, on 10 May 1869. Unique to this construction was the employment of thousands of ethnic Chinese railroad workers. The Promontory Mountains portion of the route had the largest concentration of railroad construction camps. Of 19 camps recorded during an inventory of the Golden Spike National Historic Site, four appear to be of Chinese ethnic origin. These camps were smaller than European American camps, with fewer features. Both Chinese and European American artifacts were found at Chinese worker camps, revealing the practicality of and need for locally produced and railroad-issued items, as well as the workers’ desire to use ethnically familiar items. A comparison with Chinese construction camps in Nevada and California reveals important similarities, suggesting that up to 500 Chinese construction laborers may have lived at the four Utah sites. A multifaceted explanation is provided for the separation of Chinese camps from other workers’ camps.
- Many generations, few improvements: Americans challenge Navajos on the transcontinental railroad grant, Arizona, 1881-1887Studying the clashes between Navajos and Americans that followed the Transcontinental Railroad Grant exposes the important role that colonial traders played in creating and maintaining reservations. Kelley and Francis describe and explain clashes between Navajos and Americans in perhaps the most violent segment of the railroad grant, the area south of the western half of the treaty reservation, called Chambers Checkerboard.
- Women and the Transcontinental Railroad Through Utah, 1868–1869The article presents The first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. built by the Central Pacific (CP) and Union Pacific (UP) railroads between 1863 and 1869. Topics include based on the current written histories, women appear to have participated in the creation of the railroad to a very limited degree, at least through Utah; and the newspapers reports four "ladies" being present at the golden spike ceremony on May 10, 1869, the wives and family members of prominent railroad men.
Streaming Media
- Building the Transcontinental RailroadsFor Professor Allitt, the great dividing line in the story of the American West is the construction of the transcontinental railroads, which did more than anything else to link the West with the Eastern states from which they'd emerged. Go inside the myths - and startling realities - of this decisive moment.
- The RailroadRide the rails to learn why rail transportation continues to thrive, two centuries after the modern railroad was introduced. Trace the origin of the standard rail gauge used in the U.S., probe the forces a locomotive must overcome to get rolling and then stop, and chart the rise of a revolutionary way of handling cargo: the intermodal container.
- The Railroads That Tamed the WestThe Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. Modern Marvels explores how the U.S. harnessed the awesome potential of the railroad to tame the West and link America’s coasts.