(US) railroad history and economic growth

[robo]

I found some useful and detailed information about railroads and economic growth to get an idea, how things devolopped:

http://voteview.ucsd.edu/railroad.htm

[Kevo00]

Lol, a very good course. Alfred Chandler in The Visible Hand is of course the best writer on the topic of how railways influenced other big businesses, although I think they may exaggerate the role of rail slightly on this course - it would be good if they included the counterfactual by Fogel on what would have happened if railways never existed in the US (deeply entertaining and amusing to read ).

[robo]

I suppose Fogel didn't examine why there wasn't a comparable, significant expansion of water transport in the United States?

[Kevo00]

Well he certainly forgot to mention how a water based US would have conquered the Rockies.

[robo]

It's difficult to find articles from Fogel on the web, but I found another explanation for the railroad expansion: bubbles are a key to America's economic success:
http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/13/news/ec ... /index.htm