The Grant years were eventful. Booming industry had created what some called the "Gilded Age." The Transcontinental Railroad was completed. A golden spike secured the last tie. Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. Bell's new invention was a hit at the United States Centennial Exhibition, a huge display of American industrial might and Yankee ingenuity. Political movements for labor and women's suffrage were gaining strength. Inroads were made, but the suffragettes were largely ridiculed. Some warned that equal rights would create a new breed of cigar-smoking women.
