How many miles of railroad track were laid by the end of the 19th century?

Beginning in the early 1870s, railroad construction in the United States increased dramatically. Prior to 1871, approximately 45,000 miles of track had been laid. Between 1871 and 1900, another 170,000 miles were added to the nation's growing railroad system.



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Railroads In The 20th Century, The 1900s. By 1900, the country's total rail mileage had increased to 193,346, from 163,597 in 1890. It would continue to grow for another decade before reaching its all-time high during the World War I era.

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The building boom peaked during the 1880's, during the height of the Gilded Age. As historian John F. Stover notes in his book, The Routledge Historical Atlas Of The American Railroads, a staggering 70,400 miles was laid down between 1880 and 1890 with total mileage growing from 93,200 to 163,600!

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The industrialized Union possessed an enormous advantage over the Confederacy — they had 20,000 miles of railroad track, more than double the Confederacy's 9,000 miles.

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The caption on this map says that the amount of railroad tracks in the U.S. tripled between 1870 and 1890. National Geographic chose to display this information with two historical maps.

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Soon joining the B & O as operating lines were the Mohawk and Hudson, opened in September 1830, the Saratoga, opened in July 1832, and the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, whose 136 miles of track, completed to Hamburg, constituted, in 1833, the longest steam railroad in the world.

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By 1850, 9,021 miles (14,500 km) of railroad had been constructed in the northeast, with some lines laid towards the west. The federal government wanted to establish further railroads across the west, connecting the seaports of the Atlantic with the middle west and the Pacific seaboard.

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