The Rail Center of the Nation :: American History

The Rail Center of the Nation (It got a 98% in AP US-History)The nation network of railroads laid from 1848 through the Civil War, andthe steam supply locomotives that traversed them, supplied simoleons withvast new markets, resources, and people who quickly transformed it from aquiet Frontier village into a highly populated industrial powerhouse. TheChicago of 1830 was hardly a city at all. Fort Dearborn rigid near thefork of what is now the Chicago River was bogged down with mud and tormented by disease and Indian wars. By the 1833 when the city wasincorporated, a warehouse, modify goods store, and hotel had all been built. William B. Ogden, the first mayor of Chicago was also the first to onslaughtto give Chicago a railroad. He chartered the Galena and Chicago stunin 1836, but it collapsed with the economic disaster of 1837 (Berger 3). Ogden tried again in 1846, and on October 22, 1848 Chicagos firstlocomotive, Pioneer, was loaded onto the tracks (Casey, Douglas 59). In retrospect, Pioneer rancid out to be a fitting name for the citys firsttrain, because by 1866 there were more than forty railroads servingChicago and the citys population had skyrocketed to save under 300,000. There were many problems that needed to be resolved starting time in the 1830s,before a railroad could become a diverse enough to be a cost effectivecarrier of incumbrance and people. The nations original tracks had beenbuilt mainly of wood, although cheaper than iron, it was quickly decidedthat irons durability was easy worth the extra cost. Another developmentwas the place of ballas, or pebbles, that cover the bottom of thetracks and added weight and stability along with drainage to the tracks. Also, the trains were known to conflict head on into grazing animals. Theproblem lay in how to stay fresh the animal from being pulled under the trainand causing it to derail. This answer came with the placement of a hoodplate on the front end of the locomotive so that w hatever hit the train wouldbe pushed harmlessly in front of it and could later be cleared withoutendangering the train. Other major safety issues tack together solutions with theutilization of lights and horns (Gordon 27-33). By 1848, when Chicago wasready to start building railroads, the applied science had already beendeveloped enough to conduct real business.Charters for railroads leading to Chicago soon began to pour in. After the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was established shortly after