In the midst of the 1800s, as individuals traveled to California in search of a fortune because of the Gold Rush and with the country teetered on the brink of war, three certain businessmen, William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors, saw an opportunity that would help them and also for the people. They thought of a way that could keep the West and the East to at least stay in contact between all the mist of the rumor of war. Their idea was some way for better and a faster way to have communication between the west and the east. by land. They found out how they could do this by the thought of the Pony Express.
The Pony Express standard delivery time for letters were ranged from 10 days to three weeks and consisted of boys no older than eighteen most preferable that the young men were orphans and were experienced, fit, light, and willing to go on a extremely dangerous job. The Pony Express made sure of it that the horses the young men used to get the job done was the very best. The horses would be the fastest and the fittest that money could buy and afford. It did take a while for it to start. On April 3,1860 as soon as men under 18 from St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California left simultaneously to join this job and as they had conquered the treacherous trail in an unheard of a 10-day sprint. All
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By spring, the whole tribe was ready to embark on a war to get what they had lost, all except for the Paiute chief named Numaga. It was said that for three days Numaga fasted and argued for peace between his people not to go and fight so that they could gain from it. Even though with all his pleadings for peace, some of his people gathered a raiding party and attacked the Williams Station, a Pony Express station located on the Carson River near present-day Lake
In the beginning of the 1880s, there was a new type of transportation appeared in Pacific Northwest, railroads. It marked one of the key turning points in the region's history. When railway lines were completed to and through the Pacific
In the map below, retrieved from Wikipedia, this is illustrated. This connection route was over 10,000 miles long, it stretched over 13 states. Its size was extremely important for its time, it was one of the first. It had 75 locomotives, 2000 freight cars, and 100 passenger carts. It offered more than $30 million in assets.
Eduardo Gonzalez 10-30-16 US History Mr. Aguilera Trains and War The invention of the railroad and trains caused a boom in industrial growth. It allowed goods and people to be transported farther and faster than ever before, but it didn’t only boost economies it also expanded the ranges and longevity of wars. Railroads allowed for larger number of supplies to be transported.
There have been steam engine trains trailing the United States in the early 1800’s. Many of the early ones ran only a few dozen miles. When the railways ran longer distances, the cost to build and later ride them were be extremely high. However, long distances were what Minnesota needed to keep up with the competitive and growing nation around it. “Construction began on the first track in 1861 in St. Paul and was completed in 1862.”
The railroad was first designed by George Stephenson whose original idea was to use steam to run the train and make transportation faster. When the US started using railroads and trains they purchased them from the Stephen Works company from Britain. “In the 1850s a boom in railroad development across the North was changing business organization and management and reducing freight costs. Railroads were influencing a rise in real estate values, increasing regional concentrations of industry, the size of business units and stimulating growth in investment banking and agriculture.
This was the next big thing in America. The railroad transportation method exploded and everybody was seeking to do it. So Vanderbilt began
What would take months to go to the west or to travel would now only take weeks. The road in California had shipments of tea that would be transported to the east. The marketplace would have their stores stocked with all this tea as well as being assured that the tea will arrive in a matter of days. Farmers were able to produce more vegetables, fruits and crops because of this new system of transportation. Food would arrive at its destination without going to spoil.
Central Pacific Railroad started from San Francisco, and used Chinese laborers for their work, pushing through the Sierra Nevada mountains. In 1867, to encourage quick progression, Congress deemed the land remaining between the two companies, which was the Utah plains, to be paid at mountain rate. This motivated the Union Pacific crew to lay 360 miles of track, and the Central Pacific crew to lay 425 miles of track within the year (Stockwell, 2011). Unfortunately, this hasty pace came at a cost.
Although the Pony Express didn’t last very long, it still had a huge impact in the time of the 1860’s. Between January and March of 1860, William Waddell, William Russell and Alexander Majors established the Pony Express. It was called the Central Overland California & Pikes Peak Express Company. They then had to chose two places to set up at. Out in the east St. Joseph, Missouri and out in the west Sacramento, California.
Because of the rapid settlement of the western land in the 1850s, Congress wanted to enforce a transcontinental railroad to replace America’s current weak transportation system—horse-drawn carriages were still used and soldiers often had to walk. But due to the constant competition between the Northern members and the Southern
Manifest Destiny involved many groups of people, but six of the main categories are the mountain men, travellers on the Oregon Trail, pioneer women, cowboys, Native Americans, and the Miners, also known as the 49ers. The mountain men were men who lived in the Rocky Mountains, and made livings as trappers who sold goods such as beavers pelts to people back East and Europe. There were over 350,000 people on the trail, and most of which were families with children. This took place mainly in the 1840s and 1860s. A subgroup of the Oregon travellers were the Pioneer women.
For twenty years after the Gold Rush, Americans in California felt extremely remote from the rest of the United States. The early Forty-Niners of the California Gold Rush wishing to come to California were faced with limited options. Some options included sailing around South America from the Atlantic which could take up to eight months or travel by land but that came with many dangers as well. The railroads helped establish countless towns and settlements, it paved the way to abundant mineral deposits and fertile tracts of pastures and farmland, and created new markets for eastern goods. For many, the dream of a transcontinental railroad symbolized all sorts of hopes for better things.
As American factories and farms started to produce more goods businessmen and legislators began to create a faster and cheaper way to get goods distributed to consumers. Around 1820, Americans began to build canals and steamboats, railroad, and extend roads linking the Atlantic Coast with new states in the Trans Appalachian west. Canals and Steamboats shrunk the distance of carrying goods from one place to another and could haul the most cargo for transportation. A well-known waterway called the Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes region to the Atlantic Ocean and cost 7 million dollars.
In between California and the rest of the country were the Great Plains which were not heavily populated so there was no easy way of trade and transportation to the growing western territories. A group of men called the “Big Four” which consisted of Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, decided what the country needed was a transcontinental railroad. Their company, The Central Pacific Railroad company would hire 15,000 Chinese men to work on constructing the railroad due to the fact that they would work for less than the average American. This made transportation cheaper and quicker than ever
Before the 1800s, there were two early roads, Forbes and Wilderness Road. In 1811, the National Road known as Cumberland Road was built to reach Western settlements, because they needed a road to ship farm products that connect East and West. The National Road passed thousand of wagons and coaches. John F. Stover states in American Railroads, “The rich agricultural production of the country, the small but expanding factories of eastern cities, and the largely untapped natural resources of the nation-all of these called for improvements in transport. ”(Stover1)