How Railroads Impacted Americans

The following are three distinct changes in people's lives and perceptions as a result of railroads in America:


1. From Klein's "The Rise of the Iron Horse": "By lowering the cost of inland transportation they [railroads] rendered distant markets not only physically accessible but economically feasible.  Within half a century the rail system because the lifeline of an industrial society, a network of steel tentacles pushing into every corner of the Republic" (19).
      and from Cronon's "Rails and Water": Aside from being able to go virtually anyplace where potential demand was great enough, they could also operate quite independently of the climatic factors that had bedeviled early forms of transportation" (74).
       Railroads made it possible to get from location to location more conveniently.  Trade was able to increase, and families could visit each other more easily. Goods were not compromised in travel because trains were able to keep them safe.  All in all, the railroad lowered costs of transportation and made traveling (for both people and goods) more convenient.


2.  From Klein's "The Rise of the Iron Horse: "No account of the railroad's impact writ large can convey its force as a symbol of industrial progress for individual Americans.  It opened new markets for merchants, new farmlands for settlers, new sources of profit for financiers, new jobs for everyone from managers to day laborers, and new enterprises for those who grasped the railroad's need for goods and services of many kinds" (20).
        Railroads greatly enhanced industrial growth. New jobs were created, new ways to make profits were created, and new markets were created.  All of these dramatically altered the way the economic system of America worked...the economic system was now able to expand because of the industrial expansion. 


3. From Cronon's "Rails and Water": "Because railroads ran more quickly and reliably, and could carry more people and goods over greater distances, they changed this irregular sense of time.  Trains too could be delayed. But whereas earlier western stage and steamship operators had measured their service by how many trips they made in the course of a week, railroads measured the same service in terms of the scheduled trips they made in a day...railroads changed people's ability to schedule and predict their use of time.  The long-term consequence was to move timekeeping into the realm of the mechanical clock, away from the various natural cycles which had formerly marked the flow of time" (78).
        Railroads changed the American's sense of time, especially the sense of time of those who were involved in business and trade.  Trade, which usually went in cycles of weeks, now went in cycles of days.  Time sped up, Americans were able to achieve more in a shorter amount of time.  Goods and people could travel faster, which also contributed to the industrial expansion.