Why were railroads so important in the 19th century?

The development of railroads was one of the most important phenomena of the Industrial Revolution. With their formation, construction and operation, they brought profound social, economic and political change to a country only 50 years old. Over the next 50 years, America would come to see magnificent bridges and other structures on which trains would run, awesome depots, ruthless rail magnates and the majesty of rail locomotives crossing the country.

The railroad was first developed in Great Britain. A man named George Stephenson successfully applied the steam technology of the day and created the world's first successful locomotive. The first engines used in the United States were purchased from the Stephenson Works in England. Even rails were largely imported from England until the Civil War. Americans who had visited England to see new steam locomotives were impressed that railroads dropped the cost of shipping by carriage by 60-70%.

Baltimore, the third largest city in the nation in 1827, had not invested in a canal. Yet, Baltimore was 200 miles closer to the frontier than New York and soon recognized that the development of a railway could make the city more competitive with New York and the Erie Canal in transporting people and goods to the West. The result was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first railroad chartered in the United States. There were great parades on the day the construction started. On July 4, 1828, the first spadeful of earth was turned over by the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, 91-year-old Charles Carroll.

New railroads came swiftly. In 1830, the South Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Company was formed to draw trade from the interior of the state. It had a steam locomotive built at the West Point Foundry in New York City, called The Best Friend of Charleston, the first steam locomotive to be built for sale in the United States. A year later, the Mohawk & Hudson railroad reduced a 40-mile wandering canal trip that took all day to accomplish to a 17-mile trip that took less than an hour. Its first steam engine was named the DeWitt Clinton after the builder of the Erie Canal.

Although the first railroads were successful, attempts to finance new ones originally failed as opposition was mounted by turnpike operators, canal companies, stagecoach companies and those who drove wagons. Opposition was mounted, in many cases, by tavern owners and innkeepers whose businesses were threatened. Sometimes opposition turned to violence. Religious leaders decried trains as sacriligious. But the economic benefits of the railroad soon won over the skeptics.

Perhaps the greatest physical feat of 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. Two railroads, the Central Pacific starting in San Francisco and a new railroad, the Union Pacific, starting in Omaha, Nebraska, would build the rail-line. Huge forces of immigrants, mainly Irish for the Union Pacific and Chinese for the Central Pacific, crossed mountains, dug tunnels and laid track. The two railroads met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869, and drove a last, golden spike into the completed railway.

They were liberating - increasing mobility and speed across the continent - as well as confining: they held the power of economic life and death over many communities, often abusing that power. The railroads played an important role in developing new concepts of management and brought forth giant corporations, but usually accompanied by obscure financial practices and greed. They provided employment for thousands and thousands of workers, but the conditions under which these laborers had to work and live made them revolt and informed the nation of the hardships of the working class. The railroads were also to a great extent responsible for the settlement of the West, but simultaneously helped extinguish the Native American population. They were a prize to be won for each part of the divided nation in the volatile years before the Civil War, yet linked the nation together with the first transcontinental railroad in 1869. They were born and raised on government money, yet eventually became the first and most heavily regulated segment of the private sector[93].

The importance of solving the question whether or not the railroads were the prime stimulus for American economic development fades when focusing on the effect they had on society as a whole. One cannot help but wonder how different America would have looked and functioned had it not been for the railroads.

How did railroads change the US in the late 19th century?

What impact did the railroad have on the economy of the late 19th century?

What was the impact of the development of railways in the 19th century?

Why were railroads important?