RECONSTRUCTION 1865 1877
TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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The Civil War was happening at the same time.
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The pay was too low.
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Everyone already had jobs.
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Not many people were skilled laborers, so they did not know how to build a railroad.
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Detailed explanation-1: -One reason it was so hard to recruit railroad labor was that the work was inherently dangerous and isolating. The landscape was rugged, the living conditions primitive and the weather often extreme.
Detailed explanation-2: -Railroad track had to be laid over 2, 000 miles of rugged terrain, including mountains of solid granite. Before the transcontinental railroad was completed, travel overland by stagecoach cost $1, 000, took five or six months, and involved crossing rugged mountains and arid desert.
Detailed explanation-3: -Although the railroad was not completed until four years after the Civil War, its potential value to the war effort in the North cannot be understated. A completed railroad would have enabled the North to further capitalize on military and economic advantages over the South.
Detailed explanation-4: -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. The railroad ensured a production boom, as industry mined the vast resources of the middle and western continent for use in production.