What did the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 grant?

It gave two companies the right to build a line across the continent, with government loans and free strips of land on either side of the track.

Where and when did the two lines meet?

At Promontory Summit in Utah in May 1869, joined by a golden spike.

Who did the labouring work on the first line across the continent?

Thousands of Chinese labourers on the western half and Irish immigrants and former soldiers on the eastern half, for low pay and in dangerous conditions.

Why were the railroad companies so eager to bring settlers onto the Plains?

They could sell the land they had been given beside the track, and every farm meant freight to carry, so they advertised across the east and in Europe.

How did a railroad help a farming family that lived near it?

It brought in timber, machinery and coal cheaply and carried the harvest to markets far away, which made commercial farming possible.

Edexcel GCSE History 1HI0

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The American West, c1835–c1895

The development of settlement in the West

3 things to know
Paper 2 booklet P

Overview

The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific meeting at Promontory Summit in 1869, the railroad workforce, railroads and settlers, the Homestead Act and its weaknesses, sodbuster ploughs, wind pumps, dry farming, barbed wire, the Timber Culture Act, and town marshals, sheriffs, posses and federal law.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

Which two companies built the first line across the continent, and from where did each start?

Numbers

Where and when did the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines meet?

Evaluation

How far had the railroad network grown by the 1890s?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What did the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 grant?
Model answer
It gave two companies the right to build a line across the continent, with government loans and free strips of land on either side of the track.
2
Which two companies built the first line across the continent, and from where did each start?
Model answer
The Union Pacific built westwards from Omaha and the Central Pacific eastwards from Sacramento.
3
Where and when did the two lines meet?
Model answer
At Promontory Summit in Utah in May 1869, joined by a golden spike.
4
Who did the labouring work on the first line across the continent?
Model answer
Thousands of Chinese labourers on the western half and Irish immigrants and former soldiers on the eastern half, for low pay and in dangerous conditions.
5
Why were the railroad companies so eager to bring settlers onto the Plains?
Model answer
They could sell the land they had been given beside the track, and every farm meant freight to carry, so they advertised across the east and in Europe.
6
How did a railroad help a farming family that lived near it?
Model answer
It brought in timber, machinery and coal cheaply and carried the harvest to markets far away, which made commercial farming possible.

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AThe huge loss of life left England short of workers.

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