Challenges of the Transcontinental Railroad

What was the biggest challenge they faced in building the Transcontinental Railroad?

• Finding places for the workers to stay

• Feeding the workers enough food for them to do this intensive labor

• Finding workers to lay the railroad

• Having enough money to pay the workers

What idea did they come up with to solve this problem?

• They started hiring Chinese immigrants to work on the railroad.

• They started offering more pay so more people would want to work.

• They hired Hispanic people to work on the railroads.

• They offered rewards and incentives for people to come work on the railroad.

What was one of the biggest problems the Chinese workers faced as they worked on the railroad?

• They did not have enough food to eat.

• They did not have a place to stay.

• They missed their homeland.

• They were discriminated against and treated poorly.

What is one way the Chinese workers coped with this problem?

• They built their own camp where they lived together in a community.

• They minded their own business and kept to themselves.

• They stood up for themselves against the discrimination.

• They fought to be treated fairly.

According to the text, what was the biggest obstacle the Chinese workers faced when building the railroad?

• There was not enough money.

• Their living conditions were bad.

• The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range was very challenging to build the railroad through.

• The competition with the Union Pacific was intense

What idea did the Chinese come up with to solve the problem of the huge, hard to reach rocks that they could not reach with picks or shovels?

• They decided to lower a worker down the mountain slope, drill a hole in the rock and use explosives to break it up.

• They decided to go around the hard to reach rock to build the railroad.

• They decided they could not work with the huge rock.

• They used big drills to go through the rock to build the railroad.

Who won the competition between the Union Pacific workers and the Central Pacific workers and why did they win?

• The Union Pacific won

• The Central Pacific won

• The Central Pacific won because of the hard work of the Chinese workers.

• They both ended up finishing at the same time.

In 1869, there was a big celebration when the Transcontinental Railroad was finished. What happened at the celebration?

• They invited every worker that had a part in building the railroad to attend.

• They did not invite the Chinese workers, despite their hard work on the railroad.

• They invited the President of the United States to attend the celebration.

• They limited the celebration to the government officials and tycoons who funded the railroad.

After the completion of the railroad, what did the Chinese workers do?

• They gave up and went back to China because they were treated unfairly.

• They spoke out against the discrimination they had faced.

• They held rallies to protest against discrimination.

• They endured, persevered and built strong communities.