"Nor is the atmosphere in the coach unfriendly: there is a social spirit, a sort of comradeship. 'New people continually entered. Old acquaintances-for such they soon grew to be in this rapid current of affairs-continually departed.'" -G. Ferris Cronkhite in "The Transcendental Railroad (pg. 326)
This excerpt made me think about a social change the railroad made that I hadn't thought about before. Not only did the railroad allow people to assemble that normally would be separated by hundreds of miles, the railroad also created a sense of unity just through the physical coming and going of passengers through the cars when traveling by train. It produced a sense of being in something together while Americans started using this invention that was unique to the States. People also could make new connections and relationships with people from completely different places, even if they'd never see them again after getting off the train. As more and more people became connected, this aspect of railroad travel contributed to the social life in the United States and helped unite Americans.
Megan, Indeed. There is a sort of community, if a transient, created by the mere fact of proximity. This is a promising place to make a comparison with the internet by asking what sort of unexpected communities might it produce? LDL
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