By Xavier Haines
The Gilded Age is a a time of unprecedented economic growth following the mass expansion of the railroad system. It started the growth of many cities while farm life went to the way side, fundamentally changing the way Americans worked, relaxed, and even spent their money. It was a period of great wealth for many Americans, yet it was not perfect. As the famous quote from Mark Twain says that “All the social issues of the Gilded Age are covered up with a thin layer of gold.” This demonstrates that even though America progressed and acquired great wealth, it was still an imperfect society.
America has always been a changing society, but no matter how hard the nation tried it was unable to reach its economical peak, that is until the expansion of the railroad. With the connection of the “First Transcontinental RailRoad” on May 10th, 1869 America symbolically connected both of its coast. Even though it had officially owned the Western parts of America, besides a few select cities it was still a frontier. The expansion of the railroad allowed all parts of America to be connected and the transpiration between all of these parts was faster, safer, and more effective than ever. This new effective from of travel would soon make America the most industrialized country in the world.
After the railroad was expanded nationally it allowed for a cultural boom, occurring in many of the major cities of the United States. Because the railroads made transportation easier and cheaper, manufactures were now able to make more products, at a cheeper rate, due to supplies being used to make the products being obtained cheeper because of lower shipping cost. The factories could then ship their product to another city in America for a low rate and make a greater profit than ever before. This works in the consumers favor because their dollar has more worth than ever before, but also works in the cooperations favor too as they are making substantial profits off of this. Due to this increase in profits the average non-farm wages were raised by 60% in a little over 30 years, causing a flock to the urban areas, causing the cities to grow rapidly.
The back bone for this was once again, the railroad, and all the farmers harvesting the food from the great plains, a once unusable bit of land that had become the bread basket of the world. The railroad allowed for farmers to reach and bring the tools necessary for making the plains usable, and maximizing the food output from this region. This fueled the city growth as it provided more than the required amounts of food, at cheap prices, allowing for the millions of new additions to the cities to be easily feed. But this came at a cost to the farmers because the more they produce, the cheeper their product became, meaning that while everyone else was growing they were falling behind. Not only were farmers being effected some urban residents would be under the fluctuation of the economy, meaning when lows hit many would be out of their jobs, causing poverty to some families. Also due to the confined nature of living spaces in urban areas, fires in the city would cause extensive fire damage throughout the city. This, coupled with easy transmission of diseases and riots about work and politics make cities hazardous places.
Even though America experienced much growth, both economically and socially, it was still a rough, divided, imperfect nation. So the words of Mark Twain ring true, “All the social issues of the Gilded Age are covered up with a thin layer of gold.”