They never figured out how to build gauges properly.

他们也从来认真不测量轨距
There were some twelve to fifteen different widths

在五十年代单就北方州的铁道
of railroads in the Northern states alone by the 1850s,

就有十二到十五种不同的轨距
and you could go into one town on a gauge, i don't know, three feet wide

你可能在一条三英尺宽的铁道上进镇
but on the other side of town it would come out four feet wide.

但在另一边出镇时它变成四英尺宽了
Why they never quite sat down and standardized all this, I have no idea.

我不理解为什么当时人们不统一规格
But railroads revolutionized an American sense of time,

但是铁路改变了美国人的时间观念
their ability to travel.

他们有能力去旅行
It revolutionized manufacturing,

它还带来制造业的变革
it revolutionized how quickly you could get to markets,

让制造和市场迅速地联系起来
and it made Chicago Chicago.

其典型代表是芝加哥的兴起
It also made the first multi-millionaires,

它还成就了第一个百万富翁