4. Railroads

• Railroad developed 1st in Britain - Stockton & Darlington Sep. 27, 1825
  
• Rocket of George Stephenson wins Rainhill 29mph
  
• in U.S., Secretary of War John C. Calhoun reforms
  
  • General Survey Act of 1824 - roads, canals, RRs
    
  • Corps of Engineers & Col. Stephen Long
    
• Charles Carroll starts Baltimore & Ohio RR
  
  • to be 1st trunk line to Northwest Territory
  • Peter Cooper races the Tom Thumb 8 miles
    
  • Andrew Jackson visits B&O 1833 - 1st president to ride a RR
• rival city of Charleston & Horatio Allen start RR
  
  • Best Friend on the Charleston & Hamburg
    
• Mohawk & Hudson along canal - DeWitt Clinton
  
  • John Jervis adapts bogie swivel truck
    
• Camden & Amboy in New Jersey
  
  • Robert Stevens develops T-rail, wood ties
  • Isaac Dripps adds cowcatcher "pilot" to locomotive front
• Matthias Baldwin manufactures the American locomotive
  
  • 4-4-0 wheel design by Henry R. Campbell 1836
  • equalizing beam by Joseph Harrison 1839
  • steam whistle by George W. Whistler 1836
  • enclosed cab, sand box, kerosene lantern headlight
  • Baldwin creates Dept. of Standard Gauges - uniformity
• public and private investment causes growth - map
  
  • 20% from states - Erie RR in New York
    
  • Robert F. Stockton in New Jersey
    
  • corporate charters, eminent domain
    
  • 26% from foreign investors
    
  • federal tariff on iron rails reduced until 1843
    
  • 1st federal land grants in Illinois 1850
    
  • by 1857, 45 RRs got 18m. acres in 10 states
    
• Railroads solve problems without state regulation
  
  • line and staff, superintendent, by the book
    
  • consolidation in 1850s - Pennsy, NY Central
    
• impact:
  
  • technical colleges - Rensselaer, MIT, Rochester
    
  • migration west; urban boosterism
    
  • creation of a home market & industry
    
  • average speed of 17 mph in 1840, 32 mph in 1865
    
• new concept of time
  
  • Wm Bond in Boston - 1st regional time zone 1849
    
  • standard time by Harvard Observatory 1851
    
  • broke down local isolation, natural rhythm
    
• middle landscape of Lackawanna Valley by Inness
  

Links:

• Links to Railroad Museums and Historical Societies from Paul Schumann
• Railroad-related Hypertext Pages