How Infrastructure Works

After the war ended, trade between the North and South increased and the hassle and cost of the break of gauge became increasingly untenable. In 1886, after months of planning and preparation, all of the broad gauge southern track was changed to standard gauge in just thirty-six hours: tens of thousands of workers pulled up one rail of the track, moved it a few inches closer to the other, and spiked it into its new position. Railcars got new undercarriages, and the two separate smaller networks became a single, fully interconnected, national network.