In this era of class warfare, while we worry that the rich are only paying 35% income tax, instead of 39%, let us be grateful that once upon a time we had the Robber Barons. In this era when we have to pay their mortgage for developers to build on Hamilton Street, let us be grateful that men built railroads with private money. Let us be grateful that incredible feats of private enterprise built piers, bridges and trestles. Trains allowed us to move vast amounts of raw and finished materials across America. This network allowed us to protect ourselves during two World Wars, and provided the prosperity upon which we now rest.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks extended from their piers in New Jersey to the shores of Lake Erie. The Mile Long Pier in Jersey City was the scene of German sabotage in 1916. A train full of munitions, awaiting shipment to Europe, was blown up on July 30th of that year. In 1914, the railroad built the longest ore pier in the world, in Bayonne. The ore would come from Chile, through the new Panama Canal, for shipment to Bethlehem.
reprinted from August 2016
Another instructive post. On a day when I heard that some 66% of millennials cannot identify the Holocaust, I value the historical factoids you provide.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but that is not the whole story, and by a long shot.
ReplyDeleteIt's like applauding O'Reilly for building the NIZ Zone downtown without mentioning the Penna. Tax subsidy for the development.
Congress was as corrupt in the 1800's as it is now. When the railroad magnates wanted to build they lobbied/bribed Congress to fund the development. Congress did so by several methods, such as cash grants, reduced rates for iron & steel, permitted importation of Chinese & Irish laborers, and construction money for railroad stations. But, the biggest giveaway, and what really made the railroad owners filthy rich and gave rise to the Robber Baron name, was that Congress gave the railroad owners FREE land wherever (for miles in each direction from the track area) the routes went. The owners then were free to sell the land. The money from such sales, along with fees from transporting passengers, goods & material, including payment for transporting government entities (military, mail, equipment, yadda yadda) made the owners astronomically rich. It was similar to what occurred in Russia after the fall of communism, when "connected" oligarchs purchased state industries for bukpes.....only the railroad owners had it even better...they got millions of dollars worth of land for NOTHING.