Download or read book The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890 written by George Rogers Taylor and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1956 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rapid population growth in the Great Plains and the American West after the Civil War was the result not only of railroad expansion but of a collaboration among competing railroads to adopt a uniform width for track. This title shows how the consolidation of smaller railroads and the growth of capitalism worked to unify the railroad industry.