Transportation Gathers Steam

Transportation Gathers Steam. . The transcontinental railroad across the U.S. was a monumental effort in an era when the world was accustomed to monumental projects in the name of global transportation. Even before the transcontinental railroad was completed, the “Big Four” (Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Leland Stanford) were planning and implementing the organization of a steamship company. They intended to dominate ocean shipping in the Pacific as well as to control all river transportation within the state. Meanwhile, on the international front, the British completed the Suez Canal at about the same time that the United Stated finished the transcontinental railroad. Thus, the British and the Big Four defined new commerce route to circumnavigate the world.