Railroads!
Railroads came to the United States from Europe because settlers wanted a quick way to get to their new homes. So, many of the big cites built railroads to encourage westerners to send their produce to them. The railroads at first were not a huge success. But, by 1840, there were the same number of miles or railroad tracks as of canals. In 1850, railroad building became more popular and common, and many more railroad tracks were built. During this time, the number of miles of tracks in the nation increased from 8879 miles to 30,626 miles. Americans took big risks with the tracks. To save time and money, instead of building two lanes of tracks, they only built one, which increased the possibility of trains colliding with each others. They did not level hills or cut tunnels, or lay the tracks in long curves. Sometimes they would lay the tracks on the snow, and when spring came the tracks would be ruined. By 1850, steamboat explosions were as common as rail road wrecks, and experience travelers would ride in the middle cars instead of in front of back. Americans loved speed, which increased possibility of collision. But, it encourages them to design new engines and other inventions for the trains. The earlier engines were built on wheels, like on a horse carriage. But, John Bloomfield Jervis, an engineer from New York, saw another way to do this. He made a separate small truck, which is called a bogie. It had four low to the ground wheels and he placed it under the front end of the locomotive. The bogie wheels were able to swivel, so then the train was less likely to derail even when going on a sharply curving track. The railroads were built with both private and state funds. The federal government would aid the private companies with lower tariffs on iron rails and free surveys. After 1850, the government gave them thousands of acres of public land. They would lay railroads across long stretches of wilderness in the West, which was very expensive. The tracks were costly, and entire communities of laborers had to be moved out and provided when constructing the railroads. The states and federal governments gave large grants of land for them to sell to make up the difference. By 1860, the railroads had opened up entire new areas to settle, and encouraged the new growth of factories, and had encouraged the westerners trade toward the East instead of the South. They would ship their goods by rails and canals to the cities, and the same railroads and canals would bring them the products form the East.
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