• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Ihof Logo Header 182px 67px
Search DropdownSearch IconDonate
  • About
    • 2025 Induction Ceremony
    • Advisory Board
    • Nominations
    • Previous Events
  • Inductees
  • News
    • Blog
    • Announcements
  • Donate
Home / Inductees in the News / How Railroad History Shaped Internet History
13 January 2016

How Railroad History Shaped Internet History

“It’s no accident that Iowa, where the first transcontinental railroad began, is now home to a huge data-center industry,” writes Ingrid Burrington in this article for The Atlantic.
An old graphic of railway.

Burrington, visiting the American town where the Union Pacific route for the first transcontinental railroad began, examines how networks follow networks, and that while these “ghosts” aren’t always obvious, they form an historical infrastructure that has forged a literal and figurative path to our technological future.

Related Posts

16 August 2016

Guardian Podcast Series Explores UN Resolution Declaring Internet a Basic Human Right

Guardian Podcast Series Explores UN Resolution Declaring Internet a Basic Human Right

16 June 2016

Wikipedia Co-founder Jimmy Wales Tells Vice Why We Need a Free Internet

Wikipedia Co-founder Jimmy Wales Tells Vice Why We Need a Free Internet

9 February 2016

From the Internet’s Founders, A Warning

From the Internet’s Founders, A Warning

7 July 2016

The Building of a ‘Permanent Web’

The Building of a ‘Permanent Web’

Footer

Facebook F 1
X Home
Youtube 1
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

The Internet Hall of Fame is presented by:

Internet Society 76x25

Internet Society

1551 Emancipation Highway #1506
Fredericksburg, VA. 22401
U.S.A
+1-703-439-2120

© 2025 Internet Society