Steven DeRoche
Grade 11, junior
Class: Mrs.Roberts
Why is the railroad the most important invention during the industrial revolution? How
did it shape the world we have today? Well that is the one thing i will discuss in the following
paragraphs.
The first steam powered locomotive was invented by Richard Trevithick in the year 1804
in great britain. With the start of the industrial revolution there was an increased need for faster
transportation from east to west of the country and with the new bessemer process of steel
making made railroad tracks cheap and easy to make which made the expansion of the railroad
easier.
Because the railroad could transport food, supplies and people way faster than any
carriage the cost of food and supplies dropped significantly. But while the cost of products
dropped because of the availability of such items this also allowed much economic growth for
suppliers because of the increased business and new opportunity to sell new and more expensive
products that were in danger of being stolen
With the availability of the railroad westward expansion accelerated dramatically making
the urbanization of the west coast a beacon of civilization and wealth. A large amount of workers
working on the railroad were chinese and irish immigrants from asia and europe and because of
this many descendants of these workers l...
