What important things did Andrew Carnegie do? Essay

Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835 in Scotland and died August 11, 1919 in Massachusetts. He was an American industrialist who led the expansion of the steel industry. During Carnegie's childhood, an economic downturn resulted in his family moving to Pennsylvania. At age 14, Carnegie became a messenger in a telegraph office, where he eventually became the secretary and telegrapher of Thomas Scott, a superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. In 1859, he rose above Scott as superintendent of the railroad's Pittsburgh division.
During this time he began making industrial investments in businesses such as the Keystone Bridge Company. Foreseeing the future demand for iron and steel, Carnegie left the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1865 and started managing the Keystone Bridge Company. From about 187273, he began
concentrating on steel, investing in the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works, which would eventually become the Carnegie Steel Company. In the 1870s, Carnegie's company built the first steel plants in the United States to use the Bessemer steelmaking process. Carnegie obtained greater profit by buying out the suppliers of the raw materials for steelmaking.
Carnegie also recruited very capable employees to work for him, including Henry Clay Frick. By 1889, the Carnegie Steel Company dominated the American steel industry. In 1890 the American steel industry's output passed Britain's for the first time, due to his achievements. The Carnegie Steel Company continued to prosper even during the depression of 1892. In 1901, Carnegie sold his company to J.P. Morgan's United States Steel Corporation.
He retired and devoted himself to his philanthropic activities. Carnegie wrote about
political and social matters. His most famous article, "Wealth," appearing in the North American Review. This held that a man who has great wealth has a duty to use his surplus wealth for "the improvement of mankind". A "man who dies rich dies disgraced." Carnegie's own donations came to total about $350,000,000. His main charitable foundations, were the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The construction of the transcontinental railroad started in 1863 and continued until 1869, when it was finished. The railroad represents a huge achievement in American history, linking the east to the west. The Central Pacific Railroad started at one side of the country and met the Union Pacific, which started at the other end of the country, in the middle. Today, the landscape looks the same as it did in 1869, but the rails, the towns, and the rail sidings are gone.
The Central Pacific Railroad began construction from Sacramento, California and went east. After tackling the treacherous terrain of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Great Basin, the railroad continued east. The track stretched 90 miles after it was finished.
90% of men who built the Central Pacific Railroad were Chinese. They worked with little more than picks, shovels,