Read about the explosive growth of railroad track across the United States after the Civil War. Find out about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, the men who made fortunes from the railroads, and the first American regulatory...

Read about the growth of railroads throughout the eastern part of the United States, which greatly reduced transportation costs. See why there was opposition to railroads from many groups. Be sure to look at the stereograph of the...

Discusses the conflict with Mexican American and Chinese groups as white settlers pushed westward in the nineteenth century. Explains what brought so many Chinese immigrants to America and the roadblocks and discrimination that they had...

This site describes the settlement of the West happened quickly with the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 and the push for the Transcontinental Railroad. With the explosion of the mining and ranching industries, the West was all but...

Homepage of the Golden Spike National Historic Site. Provides general information about the completion of the transcontinental railroad and contains links to other information.

A map from 1910 of the United States showing the railway network and connecting steamship lines. This map distinguishes the transcontinental railroads and secondary lines, and shows the standardized time zones used in 1910. The clock...

A map of the western United States showing the rapid growth of the New West between 1885 and 1912 during the presidencies from Benjamin Harrison to Howard Taft. The map is color-coded to show the States admitted to the Union before the...