Who benefited from the transcontinental railroad and how?

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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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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The building of the Transcontinental Railroad relied on the labor of thousands of migrant workers, including Chinese, Irish, and Mormons workers. On the western portion, about 90% of the backbreaking work was done by Chinese migrants.

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The railroad workers were paid, on average, a dollar a day. They lived in twenty railroad cars, including dormitories and an arsenal car containing a thousand loaded rifles. They worked hard and were usually able to lay from one to three miles of track per day depending upon the available materials.

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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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Railroads became a major industry, stimulating other heavy industries such as iron and steel production. These advances in travel and transport helped drive settlement in the western regions of North America and were integral to the nation's industrialization.

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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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In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act, which designated the 32nd parallel as the initial transcontinental route, and provided government bonds to fund the project and large grants of lands for rights-of-way.

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Today, portions of the original Transcontinental Railroad are still operating. The tracks have been replaced over the decades, but through Utah and Wyoming the routes remain unchanged.

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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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Railways allowed people to travel further, more quickly. This allowed leisure travel, and contributed to the growth of seaside resorts. It also allowed people to live further from their places of work, as the phenomenon of commuting took hold.

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The railway system offered new chances for travel, holidays, transporting goods, developing businesses and the growth of towns and cities. The distance between town and countryside was erased. Dairy produce and fish could be delivered easily to different parts of the country within hours.

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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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The growth of railways during the Industrial Revolution greatly stimulated the demand for iron, coal, timber, oil, and steel, and in the process, created new markets for these commodities within the British business community. Railways helped create new businesses and jobs in Great Britain.

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The Complaints of Farmers First, farmers claimed that farm prices were falling and, as a consequence, so were their incomes. They generally blamed low prices on over-production. Second, farmers alleged that monopolistic railroads and grain elevators charged unfair prices for their services.

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“Wars, ethnic conflicts and economic insecurity were scourges, and young people were leaving to seek work and support their families from afar.” Altogether, the Central Pacific Railroad hired an estimated 12,000 Chinese workers, some as young as 12.

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Working on the Railroad Teamsters and graders received the least, while the iron men got the healthiest sum of anybody save their foremen. Like their Irish counterparts on the Central Pacific, the Union Pacific men had a staple diet of beef, bread, and black coffee.

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