USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, tasking them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west.

Detailed explanation-2: -The rail line, also called the Great Transcontinental Railroad and later the “Overland Route, ” was predominantly built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) and Union Pacific (with some contribution by the Western Pacific Railroad Company) over public lands provided by extensive US land grants.

Detailed explanation-3: -Central Pacific Railroad, American railroad company founded in 1861 by a group of California merchants known later as the “Big Four” (Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker); they are best remembered for having built part of the first American transcontinental rail line.

Detailed explanation-4: -Newcastle, CA. Central Pacific Railroad began operating freight and passenger trains over the first 31 miles of track to Newcastle in June 1864. The line began in Sacramento, the railroad’s western terminus. But as the railroad continued through the foothills of the Sierras, construction became more difficult.

Detailed explanation-5: -Chinese labor was the most vital source for constructing the railroad. Most of the railroad workers in the west were Chinese, as white workers were not willing to do the dangerous work.