y different
private shippers or by common carriers among whom competition
prevailed.

Sec. 5. #Rapid building of American railroads#. The canal was just
reaching the peak of popular favor when the railroad in 1830, after a
half-century of slowly accumulating technical improvements, burst into
view as a demonstrated success as a means of transportation.[2] The
railroad excels in adaptability any other agent of transportation; it
can go over mountains or tunnel through them. It is markedly superior
in certainty; it may be blocked for a day or two by floods and snows,
but it suffers no seasonal stoppage of traffic. In speed, even the
early railroad so far excelled that the canal could survive only by
dividing the traffic, taking the lower grades of freight, and leaving
to the railroad the passenger traffic and fast freight. Even in
respect to cheapness, the unique virtue of waterways in favored
localities, the railroad made rapid gains. Improvements in roadbed,
rails, cars, engines, and other equipment soon reduced greatly the
cost of conducting traffic on the main lines of roads. Because of
these qualities railroads soon surpassed in importance every other
agency of internal transportation. The miles constructed and miles in
operation in the United States, by decades since 1830 were as follows
(route mileage, not counting double tracks and sidings):

Miles constructed Total route miles
in decade. in operation.

1830 ........................ 23 23
1840 ........................ 2,795 2,818
1850 ........................ 6,203 9,021
1800 ........................ 21,605 30,626
1870 ........................ 22,296 52,922
1880 ........................ 40,345 93,267
1890 ........................ 73,924 167,191
1900 ........................ 31,773 198,964
1910 ........................ 51,028 249,992
1915 (5 yrs.) ............... 13,555 263,547

The extension of railroads was so rapid that there was not time for
a gradual adjustment of industrial conditions. In many places the
resulting changes were revolutionary. The building of railroads in
the Mississippi valley in the seventies lowered the value of eastern
farms, ruined many English farmers, and d