The Transcontinental Railroad
The primary golden object driven into the ground in Utah to celebrate finishing the coast-to-coast railroad.
What is the Golden Spike?
Besides paying cash, the government gave railroad companies millions of acres of free public property.
Subsidies
This huge, shaggy animal was the main food and resource for Plains tribes but was nearly wiped out by train hunters.
What is the bison
The loud, noisy device on top of the locomotive that the engineer pulls to warn people a train is coming.
whistle
The word transcontinental means a train route that goes all the way across a ______, from coast to coast.
What is a continent
A wealthy, powerful businessman who controls an entire industry like railroads is often called a rail tycoon or a "Robber
Baron
Because trains brought so many new people, Native Americans lost access to the wide, open grasslands known as the Great
Great Plains
The type of fuel—black, rocky, and dug out of the ground—that replaced wood to burn in train engines and make steam
Coal
This immigrant group came across the Pacific Ocean and did the most dangerous blasting work in the California mountains.
Who are Chinese immigrants?
This massive NYC train station was paid for by the Vanderbilt family and still stands as a major landmark today.
What is Grand Central Station
Formal peace agreements signed between the government and tribes, which the government sadly kept breaking.
Treaties
When workers get mad about pay cuts and refuse to work until things change, it is called a
Strike
The western state where the two train lines finally met up in 1869.
What is Utah?
When a railroad company is the only one running trains in an area, meaning they have no competition and can charge high prices.
a monopoly
Large wooden or stone military bases built by the U.S. Army to protect track workers from attacks
Forts
The four different sections of time the U.S. was divided into so train schedules wouldn't mix up the hours.
Time Zones
What was the company relied on Irish Immigrants and African American workers to build their Railroads?
The Union Pacific Company
This major California university was founded by a wealthy railroad owner who also served as the state's governor.
What is Stanford University?
The type of natural resource, like gold or silver, discovered on tribal lands that caused railroad companies to quickly build tracks into those areas.
What are minerals?
The fast system of sending messages across long wires using clicks and beeps (Morse code) that was built right next to the train tracks.
telegraph