Why was it important?

The Transcontinental Railroad completed on May 10, 1869 was important because it dramatically improved transportation across the nation, connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in a single integrated rail system, accelerated western settlement, transformed the economy, and reshaped American society. Before the railroad, traveling from New York to San Francisco required either a six month wagon journey across the plains and mountains, a four to seven month sea voyage around Cape Horn, or a few weeks of difficult travel through Panama by ship and mule. After completion, the same trip took about a week by train, and the cost of cross-country shipping fell by an order of magnitude.

The economic effects were immense. Farmers on the Great Plains could ship wheat, corn, beef, and pork to eastern cities. California fruit growers could send produce to New York. Western mines could ship gold, silver, copper, and lead efficiently to eastern smelters and markets. Eastern manufacturers could supply western settlers with farm equipment, household goods, and industrial machinery at prices that competed with local production. The railroad created the national market that made big business possible.

The settlement effects were equally large. The Homestead Act of May 20, 1862 had offered 160 acres to any settler who lived on and improved the land for five years, but settling required transportation. The railroad and the federal land grants of about 21 million acres distributed along the right of way (which the railroads then sold to settlers and speculators) provided the means. Population on the Great Plains and in the Far West exploded between 1869 and 1900. Towns like Cheyenne, Reno, and Ogden sprang up along the rail lines. The cattle industry in Texas, Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas connected to eastern markets through railhead towns like Abilene, Dodge City, and Cheyenne.

The social effects included acceleration of immigration. Railroads recruited Scandinavian, German, Czech, and Russian immigrants to settle the lands they had received in federal grants. By 1900, the population of the United States had grown from 38 million in 1870 to 76 million, and most of the increase had moved into the trans-Mississippi West.

The railroad also accelerated the dispossession of Native peoples. Buffalo herds that had supported Plains tribes were nearly wiped out as railroads brought hunters and as the army deliberately destroyed buffalo to weaken Native resistance. Reservations were established and shrunk. The Sioux Wars and Apache Wars of the 1870s and 1880s were partly enabled by the rail logistics that brought troops, supplies, and settlers.

Cultural and political effects included standardization of time zones (railroads adopted four U.S. time zones on November 18, 1883, codified by Congress in 1918) and the integration of national markets that powered the Gilded Age industrial economy.