What was the role of the railroads in the settlement of the Great West? The first railroads in America were drawn by horses. However, with the development of the steam engine, they quickly grew. By 1860 it became obvious that the railroad was to become the primary source of transportation of American Industries. However, the railroad was not only the primary mode of transportation, but also a new emerging technology standing to change the world by shaping the Great Plains and the Pacific Northwest. Its completion I 1869 laid the brick of economic exploration of the Great Plains, stimulating the economic growth of the Union, thus increasing the settlers’ job an population, while forever changing the lives of the Native Americans.
What was the role of the railroads in the settlement of the Great West










