The Role Of Railroads During The Industrial Revolution

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Railraod Essay There were numerous revolutionary inventions that contributed to the giant leap made by some nations during the Industrial Revolution. From inventions in the textile industry to inventions in transportation, these many innovations played a central role in the rise of the industrial nations. Among the significant inventions that contributed foremost to the rise of nations such as the United States, the railroad stands out. The railway system originated in the European nation, England, which had a dense population confined to a small geographic area. This was not the situation in the United States; however, this did not stop the railroad from reaching the Americas in the early 1800s. Unlike the railroad system in England, which was allotted a large budget and which had relatively little land to cover, railroads…show more content…
Before the railroads there were approximately 13 million people living in the United States, and the majority of them lived east of the Mississippi River.4 This was evident by the location of the larger cities in the United States. Of the five cities in the country with a population of more than 250,000 people before the 1930s, none of them lay west of the Mississippi.5 This was soon to change with the building of the first passenger train tracks to head west. According to the Poyntz Tylerís text, "the railroads took the small towns with lied along its tracks and turned them into centers of
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