As the 1830s dawned, America had recovered from the ill effects of the War of 1812. It was rapidly moving westward to the Mississippi River. But it was still an agricultural nation, a nation lacking a strong transportation infrastructure. A nation lacking sophisticated economic institutions. That was about to change. Change brought about by invention from across the sea, the steam locomotive.
Steam engine was the machine that ushered in the Industrial Age. When some brilliant inventor put it on the track, railroading was born.
The Americans like things big and powerful and strong and dramatic and the steam engine, the locomotive represents that in spectacular fashion. The British invented the steam engine and the British invented most of the early railroading but the Americans picked up very quickly.
In 1825, George Stephenson, a self-taught engineer, built Locomotion, a steam-powered locomotive. It pulled a wagon over a rail for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in North East England. In that moment, railroading was born. Four years later, Stevenson, now known as the "Father of Railways", unveiled "The Rocket", what might be dubbed the first Express engine with a top speed of 12 miles per hour. Stevenson would go on to become railroading first millionaire, the first of many to follow. An ocean away, the possibilities of this new technology were not lost on a nation rapidly expanding from its original thirteen colonies, pushing west across the Appalachian Mountains toward the Mississippi River. It was an expansion that require a glue, and economy to hold the people of the United States together. Mold them into One Nation, One Identity.
The Railroads shape American Psychology, Bigness is Important and the its the Railroads that are big and it's the first great industry. Efficiency is a great an important American Ideal and its the Railroads that not only demand efficiency but who invent the techniques like the statistical management of each locomotive, of each depot, of each operating part of the system that produces numbers that tell you how how much profit you're making, how much loss and how efficient you are, that efficiency is design. Americans are bureaucratic, that is we go for career tracks with titles and promotions and positions and live by the rules. It's the railroads who invented that bureaucratic system, who invented the titles, who invented the rules, who invented the career paths, who invented promotions and invented retirement as well.