Impacts
Social Impact:
Traveling the Country
The Transcontinental Railroad allowed more people to travel cheaply, move west, visit relatives, and see sights unique to the West.
Transcontinental Travel Guide.
(Images, Crofutt's Travel Guide)
(Images, Crofutt's Travel Guide)
"At Colfax. a station at a height of 2400 feet, I got out and walked the length of the train. First came two great gaudy engines the Grizzly Bear and the White Fox, with their respective tenders loaded with logs of wood, the engines with great, solitary, reflecting lamps in front above the cow-guards, a quantity of polished brass-work, comfortable glass houses, and well-stuffed seats for the engine-drivers. The engines and tenders were succeeded by a baggage-car, a mailcar, and Wells, Fargo, and Co.'s express-car, the latter loaded with bullion and valuable parcels, and in charge of two " express agents." Each of these cars is forty-five feet long. Then came two cars loaded with peaches and grapes; then two "silver palace" cars, each sixty feet long; then a smoking-car, at that time occupied mainly by Chinamen; and then five ordinary passenger-cars, with platforms like all the others, making altogether a train about 700 feet in length."
Isabella Bird, A Lady's Life In The Rocky Mountains, 1873.
Cultural Impact:
Native Americans
The Railroad, and the people it brought, accelerated the decline of the Native Americans' way of life.
John Pope (Railroad Surveyor):
"The Indian, in truth, no longer has a country. He is reduced to starvation or to warring to the death. The Indian's first demand is that the white man shall not drive off his game and dispossess him of his lands. How can we promise this unless we prohibit emigration and settlement?... The end is sure dreadful to contemplate."
"The Indian, in truth, no longer has a country. He is reduced to starvation or to warring to the death. The Indian's first demand is that the white man shall not drive off his game and dispossess him of his lands. How can we promise this unless we prohibit emigration and settlement?... The end is sure dreadful to contemplate."
(Quote, Stephen Ambrose, Nothing Like It In The World ).
Political Impact:
Western Settlement
Undeveloped land and small settlements grew because of the Railroad. Cheyenne, Wyoming's capital, started as a Railroad depot.
UP's land sales helped populate the West.
(Photo, Westward Through Nebraska.)
(Photo, Westward Through Nebraska.)
Economic Impact
Before the Railroad, traveling across the country by stagecoach cost $1,000 ($16,300 today) and took six months. A first class Railroad ticket cost $150 (now, $2,450) and took a week. The reduced time and cost of transporting goods also opened up new markets.
Miller of Drone / The Yetts of Muckart / Lochiel's Rant / Pigeon on the Gate. Cape Breton Tradition.
Buddy MacMaster. 2003.
Copyright © Rounder Records Corp.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Buddy MacMaster. 2003.
Copyright © Rounder Records Corp.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.