How did improvements to railroads affect the US economy?

Without transcontinental railroads, most of the land between the Mississippi and the Pacific would have no value. The major industries that developed in that area (e.g., raising beef cattle, growing wheat and sugar beets, oil, iron mining) would never have developed. read more

In this view, railroads were important but were not essential to American economic growth; the US economy would have developed differently, but total output and employment would probably have been roughly the same. read more

He was a skilled mechanic and he contributed to the textile industry in the US by immigrating to the United States after carefully memorizing the designs of the textile mill machines. read more