Existing comment:
Railroad spike
1869
Commemorative of the final spike that completed the transcontinental railroad
Railroads were the basis of the nation's industrial economy in the late 1800s, creating new markets, carrying billions of tons of freight to every corner of the country, and opening up the West for development. Thanks in part to the railroad providing access to new land for farming, agricultural production doubled in the 1870s, which in turn increased railroad traffic. |