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Showing results 11 – 20 of 20
Glossary Term – Event
US Geological Survey established
Congress established the US Geological Survey to oversee surrvey projects for the transcontinental railroad and study western lands for development.
Glossary Term – Event
Granger Laws
States passed “Granger laws” to establish standard freight rates and railroad passenger fares.
Glossary Term – Organization
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission, formed by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, was the first federal regulatory commission. The Commission was tasked with regulating railroads and preventing rate discrimination.
Glossary Term – Organization
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company was chartered in 1859 and was a major force in the settlement of the American Southwest. The main line of the railway to Colorado was finished in 1872, but it was extended throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At its peak, the rail ran more than 13,000 miles in track.
Glossary Term – Organization
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad was established in 1861 by the “Big Four”—Leland Standford, Collis P. Huntingon, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins. The Central Pacific was part of the first transcontinental rail line, though its progress was often slow. Chinese immigrants were largely responsible for building the rail, which began in Sacramento, California, and reached east until it met the Union Pacific Railroad in Promontory Summit, Utah, in May 1869 to complete the transcontinental line.
Primary Source
William T. Sherman on the western railroads, 1878
Primary Source
The Great West Illustrated, 1869
The exploration and settlement of the American West coincided with the development of the medium of photography. Photographic images, reproduced in books and newspapers and available for purchase on their own, helped shape Americans’ perceptions of the West by reinforcing ideas about the region as a pristine wilderness of spectacular natural wonders; as a symbol of the future and the realization of manifest destiny; and as a land of economic opportunity, where fortunes could be made by extracting natural resources.
Andrew J. Russell...
Teaching Resource
George Pullman: His Impact on the Railroad Industry, Labor, and American Life in the Nineteenth Century
Background
George Mortimer Pullman was an influential industrialist of the nineteenth century and the founder of the Pullman Palace Car Company. His innovations brought comfort and luxury to railroad travel in the 1800s with the introduction of sleeping cars, dining cars, and parlor cars. Like other industrialists of the period Pullman built a company town near his factory to accommodate his workers’ housing needs. He advertised it as a model community which offered his workers modern amenities in a beautiful setting. By 1890, the...