Mining and Railroads

Question 1

Subsidy

Answer 1

Government provided financial aid and land grants

Question 2

Transcontinental Railroad

Answer 2

A railroad line that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific coasts

Question 3

Boomtown

Answer 3

Town that seemed to pop up almost overnight near mining sites

Question 4

How did the government encourage railroads to expand to the West?

Answer 4

The government gave public lands to railroad companies in exchange for building tracks in specific locations. They provided more than 130 million acres of land to railroad companies.

Question 5

Which president authorized transcontinental railroad in 1862?

Answer 5

President Abraham Lincoln

Question 6

How did mining and railroads draw people to the West?

Answer 6

Everybody wanted to pan for gold to “strike it rich”. Others wanted to mine for coal to make more steel for the railroads. Railroads made the movement of people to the West easier and allowed supplies to be moved back and forth with greater ease.

Question 7

How did expansion of railroads to the west change U.S.?

Answer 7

Population grew, time zones were created, new technology, etc.

Question 8

Fred Harvey

Answer 8

Fred Harvey thought of the idea to have clean restaurants with good food near train depots. He had Harvey House Restaurants and hotels all over the U.S. When he died, there were 47 Harvey House Restaurants, 15 hotels, and 30 dining carts on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad.