Expansion & The Railroads
Before the prevalence of railroads in the United States, the nation's
identity was undiscovered; vast geographic distances were an obstacle
to unification. Isolated by waterways and mountains, each town,
unaware that each was a member of a transcontinental nation, lived for itself
or at most, its state. Railroads, one of the most influential
technologies in American history, not only challenged ordinary concepts
of time, distance, and travel, but also forever changed the American
culture and history. Although railroads initially spawned intense
conflicts a…
