Editing Manifest destiny (section)

==== Transcontinental railroad ====
Manifest destiny played an important role in the development of the [[transcontinental railroad]].{{When|date=May 2024|reason=[[First transcontinental railroad]]?}} The transcontinental railroad system is often used in manifest destiny imagery like John Gast's painting, American Progress where multiple locomotives are seen traveling west.<ref name=":3"/> According to academic [[Dina Gilio-Whitaker]], "the transcontinental railroads not only enabled [U.S. control over the continent] but also accelerated it exponentially."<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Gilio-Whitaker |first=Dina |title=As long as grass grows: the indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock |date=2019 |publisher=[[Beacon Press]] |isbn=978-0-8070-7378-0 |location=Boston, Massachusetts |oclc=1044542033}}</ref> Historian Boyd Cothran says that "modern transportation development and abundant resource exploitation gave rise to an appropriation of indigenous land, [and] resources."<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Cothran |first=Boyd |title=Remembering the Modoc War: redemptive violence and the making of American innocence |date=2014 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-1861-6 |location=Chapel Hill, NC |oclc=897015863}}</ref>