What were 3 major benefits to the transcontinental railroad being completed?

Answer and Explanation: The transcontinental railroad provided many benefits including progress for commerce, travel, and American identity.



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Here are some of the ways that the first transcontinental railroad—and the many other transcontinental lines that followed it—changed America.
  • It made the Western U.S. more important. ...
  • It made commerce possible on a vast scale. ...
  • It made travel more affordable. ...
  • It changed where Americans lived.


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Railroads had a significant impact when they were introduced to the American West in the 1870s. Rail access spurred white migration and land occupation, altered the cattle industry, and affected the soil ecosystem.

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The United States began building a transcontinental railroad in 1863 to connect the East Coast with the West Coast. Work began from both sides of the country, meeting at Promontory, Utah, in 1869. During those six years workers laid some 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) of track from Nebraska to California.

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Answer and Explanation: One main result of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad was that the United States became unified. The western territories became connected with the eastern states, pulling the people of the country closer together.

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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.

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RAIL SHIPPING PROS: Comparable speed to truck shipping. Ability to transport large volumes of freight at one time. Reliable transit times and schedules. Environmentally responsible and fuel efficient.

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Answer and Explanation: However, two industries benefited the most from the Transcontinental Railroad. Those were cotton and cattle. Railroads made it possible for cotton farmers in the east to ship their products to the western frontier quickly.

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Transcontinental Railroad Facts
  • It was built to connect the United States' East and West Coasts. ...
  • Approximately 1,800 miles of track. ...
  • The transcontinental railroad cost roughly $100 million. ...
  • Workers came from a wide range of backgrounds and ethnicity. ...
  • President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act.


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Uniting the Nation While the railroad was built in a divisive era, its completion helped unite the nation after the Civil War. Arguably its greatest contribution was that it allowed for people and goods to travel from coast to coast at unprecedented speeds.

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The railroad opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, stimulated the development of town and communities, and generally tied the country together.

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The railroads provided the efficient, relatively cheap transportation that made both farming and milling profitable. They also carried the foodstuffs and other products that the men and women living on the single-crop bonanza farms needed to live.

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People could travel faster, safer, and cheaper.

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The positive impact of Westward Expansion for railroad workers was the workers had a guaranteed job. Most of them moved West so they could help build the Transcontinental railroad. Another positive impact is that the Railroad workers made pretty good money.

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How did the completion of the transcontinental railroad change the lives of American citizens? It shortened travel time between the East and West for all Americans. Due to the railroads, American settlers were able to travel west in larger numbers.

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On November 18, 1883, the railroads moved forward with the adoption of four U.S. time zones, an idea that had been proposed 11 years earlier by Charles Dowd, a Yale-educated school principal. The time zones, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific, are still in place today.

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Before, during and after the transcontinental railroad's construction thousands of enslaved and then freedmen worked on the railroads grading lines, building bridges, and blasting tunnels. They working as firemen shoveling coal into the boiler riding alongside the engineer, and as brakemen and yard switchmen.

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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.

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Good and bad The railroad is credited, for instance, with helping to open the West to migration and with expanding the American economy. It is blamed for the near eradication of the Native Americans of the Great Plains, the decimation of the buffalo and the exploitation of Chinese railroad workers.

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The completion of the transcontinental railroad led to heightened racial tensions in California, as white workers from the East Coast and Europe could more easily travel westward where immigrant laborers were prevalent, says Princeton University Assistant Professor of History Beth Lew-Williams, author of The Chinese ...

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