Answer:
It allowed goods and resources to be shipped more easily.
Step-by-step explanation:
The impact on travel was felt right away. A journey that would have taken months under ideal circumstances was shortened to seven days. One could depend on the train to arrive at a given time on a specific day rather than expecting that a ship or wagon team would show up at some point over the course of a week.
In addition to reducing travel times, the train united a previously isolated area of the nation. Although California's towns and industries were expanding, the railroad made it easier to transport goods between California and places in the Midwest and East. This accelerated economic growth even further.
The Transcontinental railroad allowed for the establishment of several locations between California and the Midwest. Cities expanded to accommodate the railroad, and locomotives need fuel and maintenance on occasion. Initially referred to as "railroad towns," many of them have now grown to be much larger, with a range of industries. The growth of these cities contributed to American expansion in the west.
Several transcontinental railroads exist today. When the first one was completed in 1869, no one could have guessed how much of an influence it would have on the economy of the country. Rail transports every kind of goods possible across this nation. Every year, goods worth trillions of dollars are transferred.
What was the Transcontinental railroad?
In the United States, at least eight rail lines could be regarded as transcontinental railroads, but the name "Transcontinental Railroad" generally refers to the first line that was constructed west to the Pacific coast of the United States. This line was built from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Sacramento, California, so it actually only traversed about half the width of the United States, and didn't even technically reach the Pacific coast. Eastern railroads connected at Council Bluffs, and soon the line reached the San Francisco Bay area.
The time saved in traveling out west, at least in the vicinity of this rail line, was obviously important, but the benefits were more wide ranging than that. As the railroads expanded on both ends of the route as well as along the route, the benefits increased. Produce from California could then reach more easterly markets, and California became an important area for the growing of crops, especially citrus fruits. As the trains became faster over the years, farm produce really became a big business.
Business opportunities improved and new markets opened because salesmen and company representatives could actually travel much more easily to meet with potential business partners and to inspect properties companies were interested in investing in or purchasing.
The rail lines opened up vast areas that could be populated, at first mainly by farmers, since the crops they raised could more easily reach markets. Settlers could more easily reach these new areas, without having to basically say goodbye forever to their friends and family back east.
Eventually, the transcontinental railroads, and all railroads, opened up most of the country to a practically new activity called "touring" or "vacationing", where people visited parts of the country simply for its entertainment or educational values, and not for business or moving purposes. Before the railroads, people were limited to vacationing in mostly nearby areas.
Stage coaches were limited to about 25 miles per day traveling, depending on the terrain, after which the passengers had to stay overnight in an inn. All day in a bouncing stage coach had to be tiring for passengers. Trains could go much farther, could run night and day, and the ride was much smoother and not as tiring.
How did Manifest Destiny affect railroads?
“Manifest Destiny” was a political slogan used to cover an unwarrantable land grab by incomers from the native inhabitants.
It is comparable in my view to the moral justifications used by the British to conquer their Empire, it is quite illuminating to look at the American West as the western equivalent to the British Empire. You will remember, of course, that one of the chief drivers of the American Rebellion was the British forbidding of any settlement West of the Alleghenies. Quite possibly our ancestors were wiser than we knew.
Whatever, Manifest Destiny justified the extreme land grab used to finance the railways. For those who have forgotten, promoters of new railroads were granted land for some miles across every mile they added to their railroad, this land was usually then granted to new settlers whom it was hoped would become customers for the new railroad. The little drawback was that the granted land was usually the traditional grazing and hunting grounds of the existing native Indian inhabitants, who did not consent.
Thanks,
Eddie