USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The railroad opened for through traffic on May 10, 1869, when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold “Last Spike” (later often referred to as the “Golden Spike") at Promontory Summit in Utah.

Detailed explanation-2: -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.

Detailed explanation-3: -One year into the Civil War, a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act (1862), guaranteeing public land grants and loans to the two railroads it chose to build the transcontinental line, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific.

Detailed explanation-4: -It made commerce possible on a vast scale. In addition to transporting western food crops and raw materials to East Coast markets and manufactured goods from East Coast cities to the West Coast, the railroad also facilitated international trade.

Detailed explanation-5: -The story goes that on May 10, 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad’s tracks from the west were connected to the Union Pacific Railroad’s tracks from the east in Promontory Summit, Utah.