RiverWeb Teachers Guide

The Teacher's Guide to RiverWeb

Section Five:

Artery of a Nation, Part II - Railroads and the American Bottoms

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES:

The other RiverWeb section on the Transportation Revolution concerns railroads. Rail transportation transformed America in many ways, ranging from the movement of commerce between states to helping open the American West for settlement. Thus this section is perhaps the most versatile of all of the RiverWeb materials, able to be used in a myriad of situations and under any number of subjects. The site provides a broad history of the development of the railway in America before it gives a case study of rail transportation in the American Bottoms region. The allows you to give both general and specific information on the subject.

Another way to use the railroad transportation section is to demonstrate the way in which a single industry can dominate a region. As the iron ore industry was preeminent Northern Minnesota and the steel industry in Pittsburgh, so too did the railway come to dominate East St. Louis. By comparing and contrasting the effects of the railroad in the American Bottoms with similar monopolies in the United States, you can reveal regional differences that had a distinct effect on the development of the areas in questions. You can enhance many aspects of American history using these RiverWeb materials, and most courses dealing with U.S. history in the nineteenth century cover the subject in some way and thus offer a logical connection with RiverWeb. By using a familiar subject like railroads, you can use introduce students to multi-media and history in an easy and informative way.

EXPLANATION OF MATERIAL:

The other half of the Transportation Revolution was the railroad. Within a relatively short span of time, at least for historical change, rail transportation transformed the way Americans lived, bringing them closer to far away goods, closer to each other, and propelled them to adopt a uniform system of time zones. In 1836 the United States contained some 1000 miles of track laid in 11 states, mainly in the Northeast, but by the eve of the Civil War in 1860 that figure had grown to almost 30,000 miles - more in fact than the rest of the world combined. By the end of the century there were over 193,000 miles of track in the United States, still more than in all of Europe, including Russia.

Not surprisingly, many people noted America's fascination with railroads, Ralph Waldo Emerson noting that it was "a work of art which agitates and drives mad the whole people; as music, sculpture, and picture have done on their great days respectively." Yet, as the RiverWeb site demonstrates, railroads were not without their cost. To take another example, from John Mack Faragher's Sugar Creek (1986), when the Chicago and Alton Railroad chose to bypass the village of Auburn, Illinois as they laid their track in 1851 they "delivered a death sentence for the village." Within a few months, at most a year, the owners of many of the town's plots sold out to a local farmer who plowed the land under for corn. Auburn's name survived, in the new town that developed next to the railroad, but the original settlement, only a mile east of the track did not.

The earlier section on East St. Louis clearly showed that the railroad played a critical role in the development of that town, as well as the entire American Bottom region. But to fully understand the impact of the railroads on the formation of this country requires understanding how rail transportation first developed in America. Railroads played a key role in the industrial development of the United States as well as the settlement of much of the country west of the Mississippi.

Beginning around 1830 along the eastern coast of the United States, the railways soon blossomed from an English-dominated cottage business to one of the most powerful and influential industrial giants in history. When the government became involved in railways with the Land Grant Act of 1850, the railroad revolution really began. The first railroad opened in St. Louis in 1851, and soon after the region became the major hub for westward traffic, giving the city the moniker "Gateway to the West."

The development of the railway in the American Bottoms led directly to the formation of the city of East St. Louis in 1859, when three smaller towns combined. From that time forward, the railroad would play the preeminent role in dictating the future course of events for the city. But this was a time of intense rivalries, not just between companies vying for their share of the market, but between cities and even states. For example, the rivalries surrounding the building of the Eads Bridge between East St. Louis and St. Louis is representative of the passions that existed between communities and the companies located in them. The downfall of the Wiggins Ferry Company as illustrated in the RiverWeb text is an outstanding example of how the success of one industry, the Eads bridge, meant the end of another, the ferry boats. This was a drama that played itself out up and down the Mississippi river valley. The troubled history of Bloody Island, close by East St. Louis, is also indicative of the kind of interstate rivalries that existed during this time period

A closer examination of the railway system in East St. Louis shows how complex the interaction was between city and railroad. An example of one of the lines in the region is the Nickel Plate Road, built late in the railroad boom and in an already well-developed region. The story of the Nickel Plate is a fascinating one that encompasses some of the most famous people in American history, from Cornelius and William Vanderbilt to "Robber Baron" Jay Gould. It is an excellent case study of the way that railroad lines emerged survived, and ultimately adapted to changing times in America. The history of the American railroads is critical to understanding the development of both the American Bottoms region and indeed the United States as a whole, and for further information on this exciting subject please see the "Further Reading" and the "Other Links of Interest" section of this study guide.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:

How did the rivalry between Illinoistown/East St. Louis and St. Louis, MO for control of railroad commerce effect the region?
What role did the government play concerning railroads? Do you think railways would have developed differently if there had been no governmental regulations?
Did the conflict between the Wiggins Company and East St. Louis positively or negatively effect the American Bottoms region?
How does the Nickel Plate Road railroad line differ from earlier lines? How was it able to survive in the competitive world of the railroads?
Did the construction of the Eads Bridge necessarily mean the downfall of the Wiggins Ferry Company?
Why was the competition for building rights for the Eads bridge so intense? What obstacles did the backers of the bridge have to overcome? Were they ultimately successful? Why or why not?

POSSIBLE ASSIGNMENTS:

Using the materials on the RiverWeb site and the World Wide Web as a whole, discuss the role of the railroad in opening the American West. What role did the St. Louis and East St. Louis region play? What effect did westward expansion have on the economy of the American Bottoms region? Explain yourself at length.
How does the creation of the Nickel Plate Road reflect the era of railroads in the United States? What problems did the financial backers of the Nickel Plate face in forming their company? Were they ultimately successful? Why or why not?