Atlantic Cities illustrates the evolution of American railroads, and the crucial role played by the Civil War:
That progress you see in the [first] three maps was because of the steam engine. 1830 gave us Tom Thumb, the first U.S. steam locomotive, in Baltimore. And from there these machines took off.
But before we could build the transcontinental railroad, the Civil War broke out, which temporarily stalled things. Ultimately, however, the war accelerated the ubiquity of trains. Railway and bridges were destroyed, and Americans learned to rebuild them better and faster.
After the war, many of [former soldiers] put their railroad-construction skills and experience to use for non-military lines, and by 1930 the travel time from Manhattan to LA was down to three days.
