The completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 had a huge impact on the West. It encouraged further settlement in the West as it made travelling their cheaper and easier. It also encouraged the development of towns along the railroad, as the railroad made the west less isolated.Click to see full answer. People also ask, why was the railroad important to westward expansion?The Transcontinental Railroad made it faster to travel east and west and to move goods and food from coast to coast.Additionally, how did the development of railroads affect the country? Historians argue over the fact whether railroads determined the pace of economic development in nineteenth-century America. They were liberating – increasing mobility and speed across the continent – as well as confining: they held the power of economic life and death over many communities, often abusing that power. Subsequently, question is, how did the railroads affect the economy? The railroad allowed raw materials to reach factories in the East and consumer goods to reach all parts of the United States in a timely manner. Railroads helped to create the cattle industry on the Plains immediately after the Civil War. Cattle brought low prices in Texas, but demand was higher on the East coast.What were the effects of the transcontinental railroad?Despite the benefits it brought to the U.S., the transcontinental railroad had some negative consequences. Most starkly, the forced relocation of Native Americans from their lands resulted in widespread destruction of Native American cultures and ways of life.