Week 29: Transcontinental Railroad: Studies Weekly

Why did the transcontinental railroad lead to the end of the “Pioneer Era”?

•   Pioneers made their own trails west to California. With the construction of the Transcontinetal Railroad, people followed the trail of the railroad.

•   The transcontinental railroad connected the country.

•   Both A and B

The two original railroad companies that helped build the transcontinental railroad were Central Pacific and _____________________.

•   Western Union

•   Union Pacific

•   Midwestern

•   Great Californian

The man pictured here determined there would be a transcontinental railroad, and he told his wife, “It will be built, and I am going to have something to do with it.”

•   Theodore Judah

•   Leland Stanford

•   Charles Crocker

•   Collis Huntington

The Central Pacific Company could only find 800 American workers interested in helping build the new transcontinental railroad, so they hired __________________ immigrants to fulfill their workforce needs.

• Irish

• Chinese

• Italian

• Polish

At the Wedding of the Rails, locomotives came together to represent the meeting of the East and West in a ceremony at _______________________.

•   Sacramento, California

•   Grand Junction, Colorado

•   Promontory, Utah

•   Omaha, Nebraska

From the first shovel of dirt to the meeting of the locomotives at Promontory, how long did it take to build the transcontinental railroad?

• three months

• six months

• four years

• six years

Chinese immigrants were not the only group to be employed by the railroad to help build the transcontinental railroad. What other group helped the Union Pacific Company build their portion of the track?

•   American Indians

•   Mexican immigrants

•   Canadian fur trappers

•   Irish immigrants

Who provided the difficult labor to build the railroad for the Central Pacific Railroad?

•   People from Ireland

•   People from Europe

•   People from China

•   People from Australia

Immigrants working on the railroad used ___________________ to construct the track.

• bulldozers

• steam shovels

• cranes

• none of the above

Whether working for the Central Pacific Company or the Union Pacific Company, employees found themselves working in dangerous conditions.

What kinds of hazards did railroad workers experience as they were building the transcontinental railroad?

•   The workers for the Central Pacific Company had to work laying tracks in the Sierra Nevada. They had to chisel through solid rock and often used explosives to help break up the rocks. Sometimes, the blasting powder would go off before the workers were clear, and they would lose body parts or even their lives.

•   The workers had to endure extreme heat in the summer and harsh winters with snow and the threat of avalanches.

•   The Union Pacific Company did not have the same issues with geography and were often at risk from attacks by unfriendly American Indian groups who were displeased with the new tracks moving through their hunting grounds.

•   All of the above