American Pageant. Essay

Over time, there have been many different modifications to facilitate transportation and the economy. The transcontinental railroad is one factor that introduced the American indusrty. This immense industry turned into an even greater business and touched from coast to coast. Because of the railroads, urbanization and industrialization grew although the corruptions with scandals came as well. The nation was in a time of spurring even higher from starting in 1865.
Before the railroads, the population was more scattered around farming areas. As the railroads grew, urbanization also expanded and began gathering around the railroads. Because the government gave a significant amount of land grants, the railroad companies, which were able to choose alternative mile-square sections, had much land that they did not use to build their railroads. President Grover Cleveland gave the unclaimed portions for land settlement in 1887. Although this was seen as the “giveaway” of land, the government ended up benefiting with long-term preferential rates for postal service and military traffic; the railroad corporations could also sell the land at an average of three dollars an acre. With new railroads in placed, people moved beside them and brought in business for the railroads and towns which gave the railroads another source of profit. Immigration also started uprising, with the Chinese and Irish working on the railroads. As the railroads traveled across the country, it gave the nation a way to get products or people across the country. Food and materials traveled to all from farms to towns and cities. People found it easier to move across the country; urbanization grew throughout the whole country rather than being scattered among the farms.
The railroads were built because of industrialization and expanded it even further. As the railroad network snaked around the country, the economic growth did as well. The locomotives touched coast to coast offering what each side of the