Railroads Unite America

The Transcontinental RailroadCompleted in 1869Connected the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific CoastReduced travel time from months to days

By the 1890s, railroads supplied cities and towns with food, fuel, mail, building materials, and access to markets.

Made it faster and cheaper

for homesteaders to settle the plains

Railroads & mail-order merchants made it possible for people in remote rural areas to enjoy

inexpensive consumer goods.

In the West, railroads helped open new territory to economic exploitation

Played a large part in the creation of the first national parks.

Cornelius VanderbiltBuilt a trading company with his own steamships

and expanded to ocean going ships.Gained control of the New York and Harlem

Railroad in 1863Purchased several other railroads and merged

them into one of the first giant corporations in American history.

Built the Grand Central Depot (Grand Central Station today) in 1871

Streamlined railroad service in the U.S.Built up a $100 million fortune (worth about $140

billion today)Founded Vanderbilt University

Railroad “barons” created vast railroad networks and monopolies with free land given by the government: Pacific Railway Act...Raised money by selling many of their land grantsUsed Chinese and Irish immigrants to lay tracks