Well first of all people on the Transcontinental Railroad traveled much faster than people on wagons. Second, since the Great Plains was very dry, and treeless the railroad could simply deliver water, and timber for homes, and other buildings
It encouraged western settlement by making it possible for farmers and ranchers to send their products to the East.
One way the federal government encouraged Western settlement was by expanding railroads. The US Congress also passed the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862.
Railroads. (NovaNet)
There is 5 effects that the settlement had on the Western Plains. The 5 effect are farming, crops, railroads, people and money.
the construction of railroads west of the Mississippi because railroads connected eastern markets to western farms.
Railroads in the United States allowed for better transportation to all areas in the western part of the USA. Better often meant faster & safer. Some cost savings were expected by both civilians and the Federal government. The socalled "West" was opened up significantly by the transcontinental railroad of 1869.
the construction of railroads west of the Mississippi because railroads connected eastern markets to western farms.
Railroads
the construction of railroads west of the Mississippi because railroads connected eastern markets to western farms.
The Federal government encouraged western settlement with the Homestead Act. This was a government policy that said that people who were willing to settle western land would be given large sections of land very cheap.
Subsidies and concessions to railroads in the nineteenth century encouraged the opening up of the Western United States to immigration as well as the setting up of towns, cities, and states.
between 1864 and 1896, ten western territories became states.