, and Charles F. Sabel, the Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity [book online] (New York: Basic Books, 1984, accessed 28 April 2007), 26; available from Questia, http://www
It is the unrolling of a new map, the revelation of a new empire, the creation of a new civilization, the revolution of the world's haunts of pleasure and the world's homes of wealth." (Bowles, 1869) When the railroad industry began, many small companies had built of tracks, often of different gauges, that covered only a couple of miles (SU, 2002)
In turn, these financial changes affected smaller industries and smaller towns. For instance, the arrival of railroads in Lynn, Massachusetts, changed Lynn's shoemaking industry (Buck, 1998)
Building trains required workers with a wide variety of skills including machinists, boilermakers, blacksmiths, sheet metal workers, electricians, carpenters, painters and laborers. As railroad companies consolidated and expanded, and as speed of communication improved across the country, larger unions comprised of members from a variety of trades and skills (Davis, 1997)
This is noted in the diary of a building engineer of the time, who noted in his diary, "In March (1886) the Beech Creek Railroad was completed to Clearfield, and when the summer schedule was made out passenger trains were run to Clearfield." (Jencks, 1999) When tracks were laid, passengers followed
Social change: As railroads developed, they opened new areas for settlement (AUG, 2002b). The trains facilitated westward expansion by making such travel safer and faster (Lander, 1855)
One day, a Chinese blasting crew did the same to the Irish, and the problem ended (Steiner, 1979). After the Civil War, as railroads worked their way west, cattle ranching and mining operations expanded in the west as well, providing new opportunities for those ready to move west (Rapczynski, 2002)
One solution was to recruit and hire immigrants. Chinese laborers were valued for train building because China had a tradition of accomplishing great building projects, such as the Great Wall (Steiner, 1979)