Railroads expand and dominate

1856 189030,000 miles of track 180,000 miles of track

The Workers

Chinese immigrants for the Central Pacific

Irish immigrants & Civil War veterans for the Union

Pacific

2,000 killed

20,000 injured

In 1888 alone!

In 1888 alone!

First Transcontinental Railroad - May 10, 1869

Central Pacific RR meets the Union Pacific RR at… Promontory, Utah

United States was physically

united

Central Pacific starting in Sacramento, California

Union Pacific starting in

Omaha, Nebraska

The Great Race

The Transcontinental Railroad

Sacramento, CA

Promontory, UTOmaha, NB

United by time1869: railroads support plan by C.F. Dowd to create time zones worldwide

Why? So that they could schedule their trains

United States had four times zones

November 18, 1883 railroad crews synchronized their watches and “railroad time” was born

• cities, and towns

before railroads - independent, self-sufficient

Railroads, cities, and towns

after railroads - interdependent, specialized

Minneapolis - major grain industry

Chicago - major stockyards

Specialization of big cities

Please write and answer the following question in your notes:

• What were the effects of railroad expansion?

The Crédit Mobilier Scandal

Railroad Corruption:

Union Pacific RR

stockholders

create A construction company called Crédit Mobilierhires

buildPays three times the cost of

construction

Crédit Mobilier Scandal

Railroad corruption

Union Pacific RR

stockholders

create A construction company called Crédit Mobilier

hires

buildextra goes back to RR stockholders

Crédit Mobilier Scandal

Railroad corruption

Union Pacific RR

stockholders

create A construction company called Crédit Mobilier

hires

buildextra goes back to RR stockholders

Later some of the money goes to pay

off politicians

Please write and answer the following question in your notes:

• How did RR owners use Credit Mobilier to make huge, undeserved profits?

How we went from Granger Laws to the Interstate Commerce Act

Granger Laws

Grangers (Populists) elect state legislators,

pass laws that lower RR rates, prohibit

discriminatory rates

Munn vs. Illinois

Railroads challenge Granger Laws, go to

Supreme Court- Railroads lose - states can regulate RR for

public benefit

Problem: Supreme Court rules states can’t regulate

railroads crossing state lines (interstate commerce)

Interstate Commerce Act Congress passes Act in 1887 to

allow federal government regulate RR between states - ICC (Interstate Commerce

Commission) set up to regulate RR rates

Railroads companies fall apart…

Railroads suffer from…

Mismanagement

Corruption

Overbuilding

Six major companies go bankrupt

BANKRUPT

Bringing on the Depression of 1893

…and railroads are re-invented

• Several big investment firms take over the bankrupt railroads

• J.P. Morgan and Company

• Eventually seven companies hold two thirds of American railroads

Question time!

• How did the Grangers, who were largely poor farmers, do battle with the giant RR companies?

George M. Pullman’s Model Town Pullman sets up a

factory to build sleepers and other railroad cars

He created a model town for his workers

Town of Pullman provided…

Apartments

Doctor’s offices

Sport’s fields

Shops

And expected…

Rent

No alcohol

No loitering

Letters from the citizens of Pullman

“One fine morning a number of men...will knock at your door and tell you that they have come to whitewash your house. They will not bother you with questions...but they just go in and do it...all charges for repairs....will be DEDUCTED FROM YOUR WAGES next pay day. You would have liked to wait another week...because you wanted to buy a pair of shoes for your boy. The company can't care about that!”

“Pullman was all very well as an employer, but to live and breathe and have one's being in Pullman was a bit too much. Residents paid rent to the Pullman Company, they bought gas of the Pullman Company, they walked on streets owned in fee simple by the Pullman Company, they paid water-tax to the Pullman Company...They sent their children to Pullman's school, attended Pullman's church, looked at but dared not enter Pullman's hotel with its private bar, for that was the limit. Pullman did not sell them their grog [liquor]...The lives of the working men were bounded on all sides by the Pullman Company; Pullman was the horizon in every direction.”

Railroad Expansion

Markets ExpandIndustry grows

Increase in immigration and migration to the west

Employs and endangers many

immigrants

Unites country in time and

space