AMERICAN HISTORY

American History

American History

Introduction

Importance of Transportation Network Connecting the Eastern Coast with the Western Frontier

In the year 1896, the First Transcontinental Railroad opened the far off western mining and regions for ranching. Instead of six months, travelling to San Francisco from New York took six hours. It was after the Civil War; people had been, lured west from Europe and East Coast by what their relatives told them and because of the extensively done advertising campaign that promised the best of Prairie lands, the lowest prices, discounts and better conditions and terms.

The newly set railroads gave migrants the opportunity to travel with special offers on family tickets, costing lesser than applying on land would normally cost. Back east, it was difficult to farm the plains. Fires due to lightening were common; managing of water was ineffective, there was extreme weather and rainfall was unpredictable which lead to those who feared to stay home. Those who looked beyond the fear were the migrants, who chief motivated them to move to west for a stronger economic life then the kind they were currently living. Farmers started to purchase large, cheap, fertile pieces of land, merchants, traders looked for newer customers, and opportunities for leadership, and laborers stood for their rights asking for higher paychecks and better work condition. With the introduction of the Act of Homestead, free land was, provided to the citizens and cheap land sold to European farmers, swiftly accomplishing the settling of the Great Plains (Ramsdell, 1917).

The first Transcontinental Railroad also known as Pacific Railroad and Overland Route built in United States from the year 1963 until the next six years. The Californian Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific connecting the Eastern terminus with the Pacific Ocean at Oakland built it. Linking the railway network that already existed with the East side of United States; the road connected to the coasts of Pacific and Atlantic of the U.S. by rail for the first time. Pacific Railroad Act 1862 and 1864 authorized construction and operating of it, during the Civil War. This railroad set land grants, the transportation system providing crops and timber, leading to rapid settlement of the Great American Desert.

Role of George Washington in Early Efforts to Create Transportation Route to the West

The very first interstate highway, funded and planned by the federals was the National Road. It crossed six states, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana and Maryland and the road linked together the old eastern community's with the frontier settlement that had emerged for the Territory of Northwest. After a generations use, the population had grown to 3.72 million from 783,635 in Ohio (Billington & Ridge, 1982).

George Washington supported the road that led to the west. Even before the Revolutionary war took place, he had extensively travelled through west, had experience of being a commander in military and speculation of land had him convinced that to open the door to the west a smooth way to it was ...