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Essay On Railroads After Civil War

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After the Civil War ended in 1865 the country was a different place and many changes were still to come. One of the major changes would be in railroads. Many railroads would be built and they changed many parts of everyday life and travel. These changes would lead to a more connected and unified country. The development of railroads in the United States following the Civil War greatly changed the country into a more connected nation and increased westward expansion.

There were two major railroads that were built after the Civil War the Transcontinental Railroad and the New Haven Railroad. These two railroads were constructed for different reasons. The Transcontinental Railroad was constructed to connect the eastern United States and the western …show more content…

The differences in these tracks made the it very complicated for the trains to get from one place to another. Often a train would have to be unloaded only to be loaded right back into a different train on a different gauge of rail. About half of all the railroads were using the gauge of 4ft 8 ½ inches following the Civil War and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad the usage of the gauge of 4foot 8 ½ inches as the standard gauge would become common in almost the entire country. This standard gauge allowed for trains to have an easier time going from place to place. This railway network lowered the cost of shipping long distances along with increasing the speed of …show more content…

Before time zones were standardized every city or area set up local time that was based off the sun. This changed when the major railroads decided that local times were too complicated. The railroads created four time zones across the United States all with a difference of one hour. This was done to reduce complexity and aid in coordination of scheduling for the trains and the passengers.

The transcontinental railroad connected the east and the western united states while the New Haven railroad connected the cities in the new England area of the United States. The New Haven railroad was formed when the two main railroads in the area consolidated causing one large network of railroads. The New Haven would run until it merged in 1969 due to financial troubles.

Fowling the Civil war, the railroad industry rebuilt and expanded causing growth in surrounding industries. The iron industry benefited greatly from increased rail road construction. Iron production had increased by more than 900 percent by 1872 and increased even more reaching a nearly 8000 percent increase in steel production by 1881 from the amount produced in 1867. With this increase in steel production that drove up both the iron and the coal industries leading to lots of jobs in the

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