HISTORICAL RAILROAD

HISTORICAL RAILROAD

                  With the industrial revolution, there was a need to have a means of transport to support the movement of goods and people. Canals had already been built, and there was a need to connect different regions now. The railroad is one of the most significant achievements of the Industrial Revolution. It opened up places that previously could not be accessed, made trade better with more returns by opening a new market for goods. Rail transport also speeded up transport. Travelling by canals in some regions used to take a whole day and railroad simplified transport by making transport in the same regions take less than an hour. With its development, transport evolved and road transport, air transport emerged, giving competition to railroads. This research article summarizes railroad, its history, its challenges and the evolution of transportation in the USA. Sources include the primary sources, annotated websites and scholarly article reviews.

With America gaining independence and land exploration and expansion started. Reliance on canals became obsolete in parts far away from the natural waterways, and there was a need for a new form of mainland transport.[1] Discovery of coal and gold, new farmlands and the coastal cities needed a connection to facilitate economic growth. This led to the development of the railroad. In Great Britain, George Stephenson had created the world first locomotive out of the steam engine. This news reached America and supporters started to look at the possibilities of railroad, despite opposition from a majority of the population. Some Americans sent to Britain to study the locomotives used there were impressed by them, and when they came back, they recommended railroads and canals to be built to solve transport problems. This started the railroad construction with the importation of engines and rails from Britain. Cities such a Baltimore recognized the importance of the railroad in helping them compete in business with New York and Erie Canal.[2] This led to the first chartered railroad in America, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Other railroads followed successfully.

From the onset, the railroad had its challenges. At this point in history, most people could not believe it was possible to travel at 30 miles per hour, the speed at which railroad was to move. Many claimed that a person would die.[3] Even after is a success, other challenges came up when attempts to finance new railroads arose. Since it was already successful, canal companies, wagon operators and stagecoach companies had faced a decline in business and formed opposition on any attempt to expand the railroad.[4] With the social and economic befits from railroad, it became a win for everyone.

With railroad came many employment opportunities in the rail sector that gave birth to labor unions and political parties. Through pictures and letters about the life of Eugene V. Debs, we learn how labor movements in the railroad industry started and its development to a political party.  Debs was a socialist and labor head, was involved in the formation of major labor and political parties in America. Debs quit school at age 14 to work for the Vandalia Railroad as unskilled paint scrapper. He changed jobs and companies for years until he joined the labor movement, starting with the lodge of Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen where he was elected the secretary. His talent for public speaking and organization made him promoted very fast in the organization. His time in the lodge of Brotherhood taught him that small and disparate trade and class unions held little power to influence meaningful change for its members. This led him to quit and formed his labor union, the American Railway Union (ARU). The main goal of ARU was to unite all railway workers in the nation, giving them the power of the majority to bring changes in the industry.[5] Debs’ ARU started with success when they staged their first strike against the Great Northern Railway. However, subsequent strikes went against the law, and he was caught and sentenced to six months in prison after heading a strike against a court injunction.[6]  It was in prison that he changed his political leaning and became a socialist.

After leaving jail, Debs immersed himself in politics forming his socialist party and while at it formed the Industrial Workers of the World, a labor union. It was due to politics that he started opposing the government, which led him to go to jail for years. Primary sources of his life, such as pictures show Debs at political events giving an antiwar speech, the speech itself, which led to his arrest and imprisonment. Besides, letters of his injunction and the guilty verdict of his trial are shown, giving us firsthand information about what happened.[7]  These sources explain to us about labor and political movement during the industrial revolution. They also tell us how the railway helped in the formation of such movements.

The growth of the railway improved the economy of many regions in America. Also, it was now possible to travel many miles away in a short period. This led to population movement and exploitation of natural resources in many regions. With a good network of railroad, the need to interconnect them across America, from east to west became a priority. With central pacific and the Union Pacific already built, it was just a matter of connecting them to form a transcontinental railroad. In the Civil works map file, there is a map, located in Record Group (RG) 77, from 1856 that shows the location of the railroad tracks in Utah, the meeting point of the two pacific railroads.[8] With gold deposits being found in California, and statehood in 1850, the Army topographical corps conducted several surveys to find the best route between east and west. This took decades, with challenges ranging from the death of the surveyors from hostile natives to political interference. After years, the then president, Abraham Lincoln, signed the Railroad Act of 1862 that led to the construction of the transcontinental railroad.[9] This railroad connected the western Califonia to the east allowing coast to coast transportation of goods and people. The two railroads that made the transcontinental met at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869 May 10 and drove the last golden spike into the completed railroad.

Expansion of the railroad now led to the development of the stations themselves. The stations began to have unique styles and elaborate buildings. In Michigan, for example, each station was decorated by planting flowers and walnut trees. In 1891, there was the introduction of free flower banquets for every female passenger travelling on the train that stopped at Ypsilanti. For the Michigan central, an image of the liberty bell franked by muskets and cannons was inaugurated. The station also planted outdoor plants and had an attractive depot landscape design which led it to be nicknamed “Garden City.” However, after the retirement of John Gipner, the man managing the station and change in management at Michigan central, these beautifications stopped slowly. It was noted that passengers had increased during this period. The landscaping returned in 1903 with Grand truck western railroad. Also, in 1900 a greenhouse and an impressive station ground was started at the Grand Raids, lower peninsula. Other depots such as Four flag garden club and Nile garden club began beautification of their station in the 1970s and are still doing the landscaping up to date.[10]

With the success of railroad transport, the government now started expanding the transport network in the nation. Road transport emerged and went unnoticed by the leadership of the railroad.  The administration responded by building subsidiaries buses to serve the small towns. A network of road transport emerged that now offered a real threat to rail transport.[11]Highways began to be built, and this made road transport more attractive than rail transport. This spelt doom for the rail transport. Highway development led to more transport network expansion and industrialization. The two now worked alongside each other. One of the advantages of both is that some offered better transport during various seasons, such as winter when railroad was preferred.

[1] Ray Spangenburg and Diane K. Moser, The Story of America’s Railroad (New York: Facts on File, 1991), 6.

[2] UShistory.org “25b., Early American Railroads” Accessed December 10, 2019. https://www.ushistory.org/us/25b.asp.

3 Spangenburg and Moser, The Story 6.

4 UShistory.org “25b.,”

[5] Glenn V. Longacre “Free Speech on Trial” Last Modified, March 27, 2019. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2017/winter/debs-canton.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Brandi Oswald “Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad.” Last Modified, May 8, 2019. https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2019/05/08/celebrating-the-150th-anniversary-of-the-transcontinental-railroad/.

[9] Ibid.

[10] David J. Mrozek, RailRoad Depots of Michigan 1910-1920 (San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing, 2008)

[11] John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle, Supplanting America’s Railroads: The Early Auto Age, 1900-1940 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2016).