USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The building of the transcontinental railroad opened up the American West to more rapid development. With the completion of the track, the travel time for making the 3, 000-mile journey across the United States was cut from a matter of months to under a week.

Detailed explanation-2: -By connecting the existing eastern U.S. rail networks to the west coast, the Transcontinental Railroad (known originally as the “Pacific Railroad") became the first continuous railroad line across the United States. It was constructed between 1863 and 1869.

Detailed explanation-3: -The author was just one of the thousands of people who flocked to the Transcontinental Railroad beginning in 1869. The railroad, which stretched nearly 2, 000 miles between Iowa, Nebraska and California, reduced travel time across the West from about six months by wagon or 25 days by stagecoach to just four days.

Detailed explanation-4: -Within ten years of its completion, the railroad shipped $50 million worth of freight coast to coast every year. Just as it opened the markets of the west coast and Asia to the east, it brought products of eastern industry to the growing populace beyond the Mississippi.