The U.S. Railroad Industry: Historical Overview
The Essential Primary Sources
Table of Contents
The U.S. Railroad Industry: HistoricalOverview
Further Reading
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Abstract
Railroads played an integral role in the history of the United States. Soon after the first viable railways were built in the country in the early 1800s, it became clear that the rail system was more than simply a means of transportation. Instead, railroads emerged as a major form of communication, as they simultaneously spurred economic growth and westward migration, and exerted a significant influence on American culture and society.
Contents
- The U.S. Railroad Industry: Historical Overview
- Moses Holbrook: Letter to John James Gourgas about “Charleston’s Best Friend”
- Report of the Directors of the New York and Eire Railroad Company
- Charles Dickens: “An American Railroad,” from American Notes
- Henry David Thoreau Questions the Need for the Railroad
- Joseph C.G. Kennedy: “Progress of Railroads in the United States for the Decade 1850-1860”
- Pacific Railroad Act
- John P. Cone: “The Pacific Railroad”
- Rev. Dr. Vinton: “East and West Completion of the Great Line Spanning the Continent”
- “The Railroad Vote in Northampton”
- Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins: Petition to Congress
- New York Times Editorial Board: “The Great Railroad Strike of 1877”
- Chinese Exclusion Act
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- Grover Cleveland: Proclamation on the Pullman Strike
- Eugene V. Debs: “The Federal Government and the Chicago Strike”
- Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: “The Pullman Porter”
- “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”
- Wallace Saunders, Eddie Newton, and T. Lawrence Siebert: “Casey Jones”
- Francis Bret Harte: “What the Engines Said”
- William T. Sherman: Letter to David Douty Colton on the Military Importance of the Transcontinental Railroad
- Woodrow Wilson: Government Assumption of Control of Transportation Systems
- U.S. War Department: Military Railroads and the Military Railway Service in World War II
- Thor Hultgren: Railway Traffic Expansion and Use of Resources in World War II
- Harry S. Truman: Radio Address to the American People on the Railroad Strike Emergency
- Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970
- Richard M. Nixon: Statement on Signing the Amtrak Improvement Act of 1973
- Jimmy Carter: Statement on Signing the Staggers Rail Act of 1980
- Randy Mallory: Press Release about the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad
- Joe Biden and Barack Obama: “The Future of High-Speed Rail”
- Daniel Webster: Congressional Hearing on America’s Freight and Passenger Rail Network