Railroad Tycoons, Driving The Early Growth Of The Industry

Railroad tycoons, also called railroad barons, were the early pioneers of the industry amassing or overseeing the construction of large Class I railroads through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These included names like James Hill, Jay and George Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Edward Harriman, Collis P. Huntington, and others. These tycoons, while visionaries who are often credited with helping to create the backbone of our national railroad network were also heavily criticized for being ruthless businessmen that disregarded public safety in the name of profits (this during a time before there were regulatory agencies in place). Whether that was true or not it was the perception and resulted in the railroad industry being heavily regulated throughout most of the 20th century.

He oversaw significant growth of the NY&H and laid its future foundations as a world-class carrier. He immediately changed the railroad’s name to the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad when he merged the original New York Central Railroad with his own Hudson River Railroad. Later including the New York & Harlem as well, the NYC&HR now held a commanding presence in New York City and after gaining control of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern it reached Chicago on a northern route that was virtually flat (late known as the Water Level Route), in comparison to PRR’s main line through the Alleghenies. The NYC&HR would go on to become the legendary New York Central System.

Of course, Vanderbilt was not the only railroad tycoon as there were many others. There was Collis Huntington who was part of the "Big 4" that helped build the transcontinental Central Pacific Railroad, he also oversaw the growth of the Southern Pacific and Chesapeake & Ohio railroads; Edward Harriman who oversaw the early years of the Union Pacific and also controlled other systems like the Southern Pacific and Illinois Central; and James Hill who was the visionary behind the Great Northern, which spanned the northern states from Minnesota to Washington (his dream of merging the GN, NP, CB&Q, and SP&S was finally realized in 1970).

These were just a few of the famed "railroad barons" that helped to shape the country's early railroad systems. Most of the railroad tycoons we know so well today lived during the mid-19th century through the first or second decade of the 20th century. During their time they oversaw much of the growth of our national rail network, which consisted of just a few thousand miles in 1840 and exploded to more than 250,000 by 1916 (the peak year for mileage). Below is a timeline between those two dates:

1840: 2,808 Miles

1850: 9,021 Miles

1860: 30,000+ Miles

1870: 52,922 Miles

1880: 93,267 Miles

1890: 163,597 Miles

1900: 193,346 Miles

1916: 254,037 Miles

While celebrated for the accomplishments they achieved the general public at the time, and even to some extent today, looked at these railroad tycoons as caring for nothing more than their ever-increasing profits (numerous newspaper articles and cartoons were published during the 19th century depicting the villainous nature of railroads and their presidents). In any event, to a greater extent this was true. Because there was no agency to oversee or regulate the railroad industry for much of the 19th century it flourished and earned massive profits. This was often at the public's expense since there was also no type of laws in affect to oversee the safe operations of passenger, or freight trains, and thus railroads had no incentive to put such measures in place. As a result many passengers and employees during this time were killed during derailments and collisions, which was not only due to a lack of laws and regulations but also because of the inferior technology available.

In any event, is it true that the famed railroad tycoons truly were wretched folks who cared nothing about the general public's welfare aboard their railroads? Probably not, at least not intentionally for most of these individuals (in the case of James Hill he actually encouraged folks to settle near his railroads and even paid to move them there). It is simply that because there was no regulations in place they took advantage of the situation, earning as much money as they could in the process (because, in essence they had a monopoly on the country at the time being that nearly everything moved via rail). For more information about many of these railroad tycoons please visit the links below, which also highlights a number of the famed presidents like the B&O's Daniel Willard of the 20th century:

Charles Crocker

Collis P. Huntington

Cornelius Vanderbilt, "The Commodore"

Daniel Drew

Edward H. Harriman

George Gould

James Fisk

James J. Hill, "The Empire Builder"

Jay Cooke

Jay Gould

Leland Stanford

Mark Hopkins

Without the railroads, and the tycoons which created them, it is probably safe to say that our country would not be the world leader that it is today and without them in the future there is little chance we, as a nation, could remain the power that we are. Yes, we may not have the most advanced high speed passenger rail system in the world (which, quite honestly is rather embarrassing) but we do have the most efficient and advanced freight system, which is marveled and emulated by other countries. For more reading about the lines these famed railroad tycoons helped to create please click here to visit the "fallen flags" section of the site.

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