Case study #2 American Dream - Artifact 2 (The Map of the American Railroads)

Information #1 - First Transcontinental Railroad(wikipedia)
                          History of the Transcontionental Railroad
*Chinese-american contribution to the transcontinental railroad*

*Chinese Immigrants working on the Transcontinental Railroad*

The transcontinental railroad which can be related to the industrialization of America, civil militia, and the Gold Rush of America was the important role of the modernization of the America. After the Civil War of America, at 1865,by signing the Pacific Rail Act by the president Lincoln, the construction  connected from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean started. And, May,19, 1869, the railroad which connected from the Sacramento, San Francisco, CA to Omaha,Nebraska was completed. That was 2826Km. In fact, that was not the railroad which connected the whole east part of America, so that was not the rairload which cross from the west to east. From the Sacramento, the Central Pacific Railroad company made the railroad from the west of Sacramento, while the Union Pacific Railroads made the Railroad from the East of Omaha. They met at the Promontory point, Utah. Acturally, the two companies didn't discuss where to meet, they were competitive for making money by paving the railway. At last, they did Golden spike which drove the golden nail. That was the first media event on America. Because they contacted to the reporters of newspaper and they drove the golden nails. Also they used the hammer which was made by silver. After the events, they donated the golden nails to Cantor Arts center. At these time, the Chinese immigrated nearby the Pacific Ocean. At first, their purpose of immigrance was to find the gold near the Pacific. However, later, they started to pave the railroad for the Central Pacific railroad company. The 90% of the workers of that company were Chineses. In fact, Chinese set the explosive to make the railroad passing the Sierra Nevada Mountains. That's why the mortality was high. However, the salary was too low compared to White Americans. After the transcontinental railroad was completed, most of chinese lost their jobs. And also, they were exception at the event of the Golden Spike. After then, the chinese people started to live and work together, the china town was maded in San Francois. They were like, in my opinion, In unity there is strength.

They worked service industry such as laundry or kitchen stuff. Nevertheless, the white Americans hated them for the reason of taking their jobs. Hence, they made Chinese Exclusionary Act in 1882, shown in the Youtube video. The law was valid until 1943.

Not only the china town in San Francois, but the transcontinental railroad is related to the pitiful history of American Indians. Union Pacific Railroad company passed Great Plains in middle part of the America by paving the railroad from the East to West. That region was formed as the place that Indians's place by treaty. However, After the railroad came to their area, they thought that it was a breach of agreement. Also, they killed the buffalos in there which was the source of the clothes and the foods. So, Indian called the railroad as Iron Horse, killing the workers on Union Pacific Railroad company and blocking the road. At first, the America government consented to ban of buffalo in South of the Arkansas River, At last, the white americans violated the treaty. That's why Indians broke the railroad. Finally, the Indians were killed by the government.

Resultingly, by the complete railroad, the traffic developed a lot. Cowboys in Texas was nolonger useful.

Especially, the East part developed a lot, following the railroads. However, developing of the high-speed road and propagating the cars made the difficulty of management of the railroad company. President Nixon and the congress of America Amtrack established the national railroad passenger corporation.



*~  My Map ~*

 § Reflection §

1. a) Which main topic does the artifact relate to? In what ways?
It is related to balance of power. Comparing the other countries, this transcontinental railroad gave big contribution to develop the country. Especially, the transcontinental railroad is large scale transportation. That is why the other countries envy about that. The transcontinental railroad was the big role to transport everything, including the sources to the factory. The transcontinental railroad was driving force of growth in  many aspects.

b) Which other main topics does it also relate to?
Also it is related to the building of modern economy. For example, compared to the airplane, the price was really cheap. That is why the ship or railroad use still now for transportation. And the advantage is also the amounts. Lots of amounts can be transportated together. Then that causes the growth of economy.

2. Why did you choose this artifact, and how much time did you spend creating and or processing it?
I spent more than 4 hours for organizing,making my map.Actually, including to go to the print shop for bigger printer, i may spend almost 7 hours or so. I chose this artifact by my interest. I'm in flavor of learning more information about the transcontinental railroad,including the meaning at that time. It's better to organize with map for better understanding.

3.What insights and understanding have you gained from the creation and/or processing of this artifact?

Still now, Americans use transcontinental railroad as well. The reason is that railroad can speed up and also, no jams. Based on the Internet informations, because of the devleopement of railroad, Texas cowboys were disappeard. Meanwhile, cars and the expressway were well developed. As a result, the railroad company started to decrease. American government made the transcontinental railroad public transportation. The government managed transcontinental railroad by themselves. And, now, because of fear of passport by terrorism, airplane, they prefer to use railroad. From 19th century, transcontinental railroad was a big role.

4.Does this artifact reflect your best work and/or ideas? Why, or why not?
I think it shows my best work. There is no better way to understand the geographic things without map. Map can help people understand the general information and geographic information. And, for better organization, i tried my best : D

5.Rate this artifact on a scale of -5 to 5(0 is neutral) for the following 4 criterion:

a) Impact on the quality of your Portfolio 4

b)Impact on your level of happiness/enjoyment 5 - I do enjoy the designing my map.

c)Impact on your learning 5 - Map can help everything.

d)Level of creativity and originality 5

6.Any additional commencts.
I hope my map can be used on everywhere, instead of web-map. :'D