Transcontinental Railroad Exam
Questions And All Correct Answers.
Describe the route of the transcontinental railroad, and why this route was chosen over a route
in the southern part of the country. - Answer The route followed the Oregon, Mormon and
California Trails. The new line was added and connected Omaha and Nebraska; followed the
Platte River; crossed the Rocky Mountains at South Pass in Wyoming; and through northern
Utah and Nevada before crossing the Sierras to Sacramento, California. Additional route
connected Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah and other cities not directly on the route.
The Central Pacific laid 690 miles (1,110 km) of track, starting in Sacramento, and the Union
Pacific laid 1,087 miles (1,749 km) of track, starting in Omaha. The two lines connected at
Promontory Summit, Utah. This route was chosen over the route in the southern part of the
country because it was less mountainous.
The transcontinental railroad was usable despite the winter snows and was economically
favorable.
List important facts about the building of the transcontinental railroad:
who/what/why/when/where/how. - Answer The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United
States was built in the 1860s, linking the well developed railway network of the Eastern coast
with rapidly growing California. The mainline was officially completed on May 10, 1869. The rail
line was an important goal of President Abraham Lincoln, fostered during the early portion of
his term and completed four years after his death. The building of the railroad was motivated in
part to bind California to the Union during the American Civil War. The railroad is considered by
some to be the greatest technological feat of the 19th century. The transcontinental railroad
replaced the slower and more dangerous wagon trains, Pony Express and stagecoach lines that
crossed the country by land and the equally difficult sea journey around the southern tip of
South America.
Explain why the Union Pacific company had many problems with Native Americans whereas the
Central Pacific railroad did not. - Answer Westward construction proceeded very quickly over
the open terrain of the Great Plains. Soon, however, they entered Indian-held lands. The Native
Americans saw the railroad as a violation of their treaties with the United States. Some groups
began to raid the labor camps along the line. Union Pacific responded by increasing security and
by hiring marksmen to kill Bison (commonly known as American buffalo) which were both a
physical threat to trains and the primary food source for the Plains Indians.
List the problems the train crews encountered while building the transcontinental rail lines. -
Answer The Central Pacific Railroad: the Sierra Nevada Mountains and then by winter
snowstorms
, surveyed what became the western portion of the route. They proposed a rail line through the
Sierra Nevada mountains through Clipper Gap, Emigrant Gap, and Donner Pass, then south to
Truckee.
Collis Huntington was inspired by a Theodore Judah lecture on the possibilities of a railroad.
Huntington found four partners who initially invested $1,500 each. The partners included Leland
Stanford, a grocer, the future governor of California, and founder of the university that bears his
name. The investors became known as the Big Four and their venture was called the Central
Pacific Railroad.
Who was the leader of the Union Pacific? Explain his importance. - Answer In 1854 Durant
founded the Missouri & Mississippi Railroad. Little got built, but ownership poised him to seize
the burgeoning Pacific Railroad initiative. By that time he had made a fortune smuggling
contraband cotton from the Confederate states with the aid of Grenville Dodge. Investing his
earnings in an underhanded subscription scheme, the Doctor secured control of the Union
Pacific. He assumed the vice presidency and named an associate as figurehead. Immediately he
disregarded ethics. When Abraham Lincoln named Council Bluffs, Iowa, as the eastern terminus
of the railroad, Durant instead sent surveyors across the river to Omaha, where he held
property, avoiding the cost of a big river bridge.
Durant announced that the Union Pacific would connect to his own M&M line, causing M&M
stock to rise sharply. He sold his shares discreetly and bought stock in the competition. A new
announcement declared the connection would be the Cedar Rapids & Missouri line. Investors
flocked to that company and divested themselves of M&M, which Durant bought back at low
cost. "In other words, he gets back home and makes in the round trip for him and his friends
$5,000,000," wrote Dodge's brother Nathan. "It is the smartest operation ever done in stocks
and could never be done again."
The Casement Brothers developed a method of handling men and supplies that helped the
workmen build the lines faster. Explain. - Answer Jack and Dan Casement supervised the men
who lived for years along the railroad. Jack was a railroad contractor and former Union general,
while Dan, a colonel, had a background in bookkeeping and finance. The notoriously tough
Casement brothers were in charge of laborers who endured extraordinary heat and cold,
insects, floods, arrows, illness, and long hours of poorly paid and grinding work seven days a
week to keep the UP line advancing westward. The only laws were those imposed by the
brothers. As a result of superb organization and pitiless disciplinary enforcement by the
Casements, the distance covered each day averaged more than a mile and, on one occasion,
surpassed 8 miles.
How were men recruited to work on the transcontinental lines? How were they treated? -
Answer Chinese peasants from the Canton Province began arriving on California's shores in
1850, pushed by poverty and overpopulation from their homeland -- and pulled forward by
rumors of the Gum Sham, the Mountain of Gold, that awaited them across the ocean. As their
presence increased, the Chinese immigrants faced growing prejudice and an increasingly
Questions And All Correct Answers.
Describe the route of the transcontinental railroad, and why this route was chosen over a route
in the southern part of the country. - Answer The route followed the Oregon, Mormon and
California Trails. The new line was added and connected Omaha and Nebraska; followed the
Platte River; crossed the Rocky Mountains at South Pass in Wyoming; and through northern
Utah and Nevada before crossing the Sierras to Sacramento, California. Additional route
connected Denver, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah and other cities not directly on the route.
The Central Pacific laid 690 miles (1,110 km) of track, starting in Sacramento, and the Union
Pacific laid 1,087 miles (1,749 km) of track, starting in Omaha. The two lines connected at
Promontory Summit, Utah. This route was chosen over the route in the southern part of the
country because it was less mountainous.
The transcontinental railroad was usable despite the winter snows and was economically
favorable.
List important facts about the building of the transcontinental railroad:
who/what/why/when/where/how. - Answer The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United
States was built in the 1860s, linking the well developed railway network of the Eastern coast
with rapidly growing California. The mainline was officially completed on May 10, 1869. The rail
line was an important goal of President Abraham Lincoln, fostered during the early portion of
his term and completed four years after his death. The building of the railroad was motivated in
part to bind California to the Union during the American Civil War. The railroad is considered by
some to be the greatest technological feat of the 19th century. The transcontinental railroad
replaced the slower and more dangerous wagon trains, Pony Express and stagecoach lines that
crossed the country by land and the equally difficult sea journey around the southern tip of
South America.
Explain why the Union Pacific company had many problems with Native Americans whereas the
Central Pacific railroad did not. - Answer Westward construction proceeded very quickly over
the open terrain of the Great Plains. Soon, however, they entered Indian-held lands. The Native
Americans saw the railroad as a violation of their treaties with the United States. Some groups
began to raid the labor camps along the line. Union Pacific responded by increasing security and
by hiring marksmen to kill Bison (commonly known as American buffalo) which were both a
physical threat to trains and the primary food source for the Plains Indians.
List the problems the train crews encountered while building the transcontinental rail lines. -
Answer The Central Pacific Railroad: the Sierra Nevada Mountains and then by winter
snowstorms
, surveyed what became the western portion of the route. They proposed a rail line through the
Sierra Nevada mountains through Clipper Gap, Emigrant Gap, and Donner Pass, then south to
Truckee.
Collis Huntington was inspired by a Theodore Judah lecture on the possibilities of a railroad.
Huntington found four partners who initially invested $1,500 each. The partners included Leland
Stanford, a grocer, the future governor of California, and founder of the university that bears his
name. The investors became known as the Big Four and their venture was called the Central
Pacific Railroad.
Who was the leader of the Union Pacific? Explain his importance. - Answer In 1854 Durant
founded the Missouri & Mississippi Railroad. Little got built, but ownership poised him to seize
the burgeoning Pacific Railroad initiative. By that time he had made a fortune smuggling
contraband cotton from the Confederate states with the aid of Grenville Dodge. Investing his
earnings in an underhanded subscription scheme, the Doctor secured control of the Union
Pacific. He assumed the vice presidency and named an associate as figurehead. Immediately he
disregarded ethics. When Abraham Lincoln named Council Bluffs, Iowa, as the eastern terminus
of the railroad, Durant instead sent surveyors across the river to Omaha, where he held
property, avoiding the cost of a big river bridge.
Durant announced that the Union Pacific would connect to his own M&M line, causing M&M
stock to rise sharply. He sold his shares discreetly and bought stock in the competition. A new
announcement declared the connection would be the Cedar Rapids & Missouri line. Investors
flocked to that company and divested themselves of M&M, which Durant bought back at low
cost. "In other words, he gets back home and makes in the round trip for him and his friends
$5,000,000," wrote Dodge's brother Nathan. "It is the smartest operation ever done in stocks
and could never be done again."
The Casement Brothers developed a method of handling men and supplies that helped the
workmen build the lines faster. Explain. - Answer Jack and Dan Casement supervised the men
who lived for years along the railroad. Jack was a railroad contractor and former Union general,
while Dan, a colonel, had a background in bookkeeping and finance. The notoriously tough
Casement brothers were in charge of laborers who endured extraordinary heat and cold,
insects, floods, arrows, illness, and long hours of poorly paid and grinding work seven days a
week to keep the UP line advancing westward. The only laws were those imposed by the
brothers. As a result of superb organization and pitiless disciplinary enforcement by the
Casements, the distance covered each day averaged more than a mile and, on one occasion,
surpassed 8 miles.
How were men recruited to work on the transcontinental lines? How were they treated? -
Answer Chinese peasants from the Canton Province began arriving on California's shores in
1850, pushed by poverty and overpopulation from their homeland -- and pulled forward by
rumors of the Gum Sham, the Mountain of Gold, that awaited them across the ocean. As their
presence increased, the Chinese immigrants faced growing prejudice and an increasingly
