Railroad history Essay

The reasons why Villard failed to build a profitable railroad was that he never bothered to study much about railroads so he made many mistakes such as, he rushed to the wilderness to collect his subsidies he thought that by building the rail on an area with a beautiful view he would attract tourism in the area and so they would pay handsomely to tour, so he chose to build in the northwest because of its beauty. This increased the cost of building the railroad because he had to increase the bends, the steepness and the length of the railroad to be able to take in the rocky Mountain View. Villard also did create in areas around the hot springs in broad water county, Montana and at Bozeman costly health spas. This and more expensive buildings and structures made Villard go broke because the tourist opted to visit else where. Though the federal aid and foreign investors had given Villard some space for mistakes he made way too many. He was so eager to rush to the coast that he built when the cost of materials and construction in whole was very stiff. High cost amounts to high rates and this hindered the tourists from traveling through the NP. Railroad acted as an alternative mode of transport which farmers used to travel from rural areas to the urban market whenever they had need, they also used the railroad to transport their produce thus interacting with people from other parts of the country. As the railroad changed people’s experiences, it also changed the time concepts. If a person wanted to travel from point A to point B it became more faster than pre railroad days where one had to use horses on bad road, board a steamboat, Railroads decreased the cost of distance and increased the value of time.