How did the first railroads affect trade?
In addition to transporting western food crops and raw materials to East Coast markets and manufactured goods from East Coast cities to the West Coast, the railroad also facilitated international trade. The first freight train to travel eastward from California carried a load of Japanese tea.
How did railroads benefit businesses?
For one thing, the railroads were enormous consumers of capital goods. Another reason the railroads were so important to the growth of business in the early 1900s was that they enabled the flow of goods throughout the nation. Goods could be purchased through catalogs and delivered by rail very…
How did the railroads both benefit and hurt ranchers?
The railroads had created them, and the railroads had ended them: railroad lines pushed into Texas and made the great drives obsolete. But ranching still brought profits and the Plains were better suited for grazing than for agriculture and western ranchers continued supplying beef for national markets.
Why the Cowboy became the hero of the West?
Cowboys played an important role in the settling of the west. Ranching was a big industry and cowboys helped to run the ranches. They herded cattle, repaired fences and buildings, and took care of the horses. Cowboys often worked on cattle drives.
Who drove the Longhorns to the railroad lines?
Cattle drives were an integral part of western expansion. Cowboys worked long hours in the saddle, driving hardy longhorns to railroad towns that could ship the meat back east. Between 1865 and 1885, as many as forty thousand cowboys roamed the Great Plains, hoping to work for local ranchers.
What kind of challenges did railroad companies face when building lines?
Another challenge they faced was the need to create tunnels through the mountains. Using nitroglycerin, they had to blast through the mountains in a very dangerous manner. On average, they were only able to get through 1 foot of mountain at a time. In the end, 11 tunnels were completed.
What difficulties did the first railroads face?
They were tight quarters in which conditions could be squalid. Also troubling were fears of the Native Americans across whose land the laborers built their road. There were Native American snipers, raids, livestock rustlings, scalpings, and burnings all along the railroad right of way.
Who were the two companies that built the railroad?
The rail line, also called the Great Transcontinental Railroad and later the “Overland Route,” was predominantly built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) and Union Pacific (with some contribution by the Western Pacific Railroad Company) over public lands provided by extensive US land grants.
Why did the railroad shoot Chinese?
150 Years Ago, Chinese Railroad Workers Staged the Era’s Largest Labor Strike. On June 25, 1867, thousands of Chinese railroad workers staged a strike to demand equal pay to white laborers, shorter workdays, and better conditions. So they put them to their employer, the Central Pacific Railroad, and a strike was on.