USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Before the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, people traveled across the American West mainly by stagecoach . While railroads were available in the East, travel through the West was a slow, laborious process.

Detailed explanation-2: -In the early days, people had no means of transport. Whenever they had to go somewhere they walked on feet. They used animals to carry their goods.

Detailed explanation-3: -The route followed the main trails used for the opening of the West pioneered by the Oregon, Mormon, California Trails and the Pony Express. Going from Omaha it followed the Platte River through Nebraska, crossed the Rocky Mountains at South Pass and then cut down through northern Utah and Nevada to Sacramento.

Detailed explanation-4: -The transcontinental railroad was built in six years almost entirely by hand. Workers drove spikes into mountains, filled the holes with black powder, and blasted through the rock inch by inch. Handcarts moved the drift from cuts to fills.

Detailed explanation-5: -The fastest mode of transportation people used prior to the locomotive was the stagecoach, which traveled one-third the speed of the locomotive.