Americas Railroad System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Americas Railroad System - Essay Example This method however has many shortcomings, and there was need to come up with better transport systems, in terms of security of the transport means, speed and efficiency. Railroads are one good example of much better transportation system that was invented in many countries. This paper examines the expansion of the railroad in the United States of America in the late 19th century, and its effects on the American economy. Railroads are said to have existed as early as the 6th century BC. But it is until the 16th century that railroads were put to extensive use in Europe. Europeans started using the railroads in transporting coal and charcoal from the mines. The first mechanically worked railroad was in Britain, during the second decade of the 19th century, and then the railroads were introduced to America in 1829 (Jensen 13). This led to many changes in America; it improved transportation and communication technology so much, that it could be viewed as a revolution in America. It adva nced technology; it expanded and settled America’s borders further to the west, improved economic development and communication, as well as labor and immigration. It also introduced new management policies and technology. There are three factors that reshaped America in the late 19th century. ... The civil conflict was however the stand-out event in the 19th century and the railroads played an important role in it. Railroads were used in the movement of soldiers and ammunition to war zones. There was rapid industrialization in the north in the period between 1820 and 1860, and the railroads helped create, and ultimately benefited from the rise of factory production and the agriculture that was being conducted on a large scale. The railroads in the south were not as well maintained and built as the ones in the north. Still, they played a marginal role in the tobacco and cotton trade that was the backbone of the south economy. The north therefore developed more than the south and therefore in the end, due to its industrial supremacy, was able to defeat the confederacy into submitting. The leaders of that time, president Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson David’s, recognized that the railroads will be very important in the war, and this was evident by how the soldiers on both sides of the railroads tried to use it to their advantage (Jensen 59). The south, however, did not have industries that had the ability to build new locomotives for the war, nor the political power to improve the railroads and networks in their area, to enable them to function well and therefore put up a credible fight. The north decided to take full advantage that access to the railroads provided, by creating the United States military railroad that had the powers to take any railroad it considered strategic and important into its control, so that its soldiers could use them. This body was put under the control of ranking officers Daniel C McCallum and Herman Haupt. They were given a lot of power to ensure