Significance of California Railroads????

Question

Well do you know the California Railroad Museum located in Sacramento .. well I went there. And know I need to write a paragraph about the significance of the railroads in Califronia's History .. HELP!!!

Answer 1

Prior to railroads, in california or anywhere else, most people had to live near waterways.

That was the only way to move large enough amounts of food, building materials, people, livestock, heavy machinery and anything else you can think of.

With the railroads, cities could (and did) spring up anywhere people wanted to llive.

Mines were not dependent on wagons to bring in their heavy equipment or take out their ore, sawmills could get bigger and faster machinery to the mountains and move their product cheaper.

Without railroads the west would look much much different.

I guess it is all perspective though, if you were a buffalo or Indian in the 1870's railroads might not have been so welcome.

Answer 2

So they didn't tell you that railroads opened up territory by transporting in people ~ and merchandise for sustaining those people? what?

It is partially how California got settled by larger groups of people in a shorter time frame then "Wagons Ho!"