USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The decades after the Civil War were a great age of railroad building. Total rail mileage in the United States grew from 53, 000 miles in 1870 to just under 200, 000 miles at the turn of the century, with most of the new track being laid east of the Mississippi River in the nation’s industrial heartland.

Detailed explanation-2: -The railroad opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of town and communities, and generally tied the country together.

Detailed explanation-3: -Railroads became a major industry, stimulating other heavy industries such as iron and steel production. These advances in travel and transport helped drive settlement in the western regions of North America and were integral to the nation’s industrialization.

Detailed explanation-4: -Surging Interstate Trade Just as it opened the markets of the west coast and Asia to the east, it brought products of eastern industry to the growing populace beyond the Mississippi. The railroad ensured a production boom, as industry mined the vast resources of the middle and western continent for use in production.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Southern railroads, before the war, had imported iron from England. Once the war began, the Union blockade of the Atlantic and Gulf ports was very effective in shutting off that supply. Locomotives and tracks began to wear out.