How Rail Shipping Started in America
Railroads were first introduced in North America around the 1830s for steam-powered trains. In 1826, Massachusetts implemented the Granite Railway as a common freight carrier to aid in the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston. Soon after, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad started passenger train service in May 1830, initially using horses to pull train cars. The first to use steam locomotives was the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company in December 1830. Many of the earliest locomotives for America’s railroads were imported from England, but it didn’t take long for domestic locomotive manufacturing to be established.
By 1850, 9,000 miles of railroad lines had been built. Between 1855 and 1871, the federal government ran a land grant system through which new railway companies in the west were given 129 million acres, which was fortified by the addition of another 51 million acres granted by the states and a variety of government subsidies. Through these programs, a plethora of western railroad lines opened including the Central Pacific Railroad with service from San Francisco to Omaha and Chicago.
These railroads soon replaced many canals, turnpikes, and steamboats due to two factors. The first was that railroads were able to operate throughout the year regardless of the weather, unlike water routes which were rendered useless in the winter months due to freezing. The second factor was the increased safety of railroads; the probability of a train crash was lower than that of a boat sinking. Thus, the railroads lowered costs and provided an effective and reliable route of transportation. They allowed shippers to have a smaller inventory of goods, reducing storage costs and avoiding insurance costs from the loss of goods during transit.
Railroads became a key strategy during the American Civil War, showcasing their importance to the American public. The vast majority of the mills and factories for the U.S. were in the North, and the Union blockade prevented the South from accessing new equipment or spare parts. This blockade caused conditions to deteriorate rapidly in the Confederacy and in 1864, the Confederate railroad network collapsed. During the Reconstruction era (1865-1877), Northern money rebuilt, expanded, and modernized railroads throughout the South. These railroads helped to foster a mechanically skilled group of craftsmen and laborers, ending the isolation of the region.
By 1880, the nation had 17,800 freight locomotives transporting 23,600 tons of freight and 22,200 passenger locomotives– the railroad became the nation’s largest employer outside of the agricultural industry. The railroads allowed for the opening of hundreds of millions of acres of fertile farmland, lower costs for food and all goods, a huge national sales market, the development of a society skilled in engineering, and the creation of a modern system of management.
Today, the U.S. freight rail network operates over 140,000 miles of privately owned track in every state except Hawaii. It accounts for one-third of all U.S. exports and around 40% of long-distance freight value. In 2019, the top five railroads in the U.S. had total operating revenue of over $71 billion. The potential that rail shipping held was clear even in its early stages, but it’s incredible to see how far the industry has come and the immense effect it’s had on the infrastructure and management of our economy and of the country as a whole.
