Level 1 Questions

1. The Transcontinental Railroad was commissioned during this war, in order to link California more closely with the Eastern States.
   1. The Revolutionary War
   2. The Mexican American War
   3. The Civil War
   4. World War I

2. Which railroad company started building from Sacramento in 1863?
   1. The Union Pacific Railroad
   2. The Southern Pacific Railroad
   3. The Central Pacific Railroad
   4. The Sacramento Railroad

3. Which railroad company began building from Omaha, Nebraska?
   1. The Union Pacific Railroad
   2. The Southern Pacific Railroad
   3. The Central Pacific Railroad
   4. The Omaha Railroad

4. The primary obstacle facing the builders of the Central Pacific Railroad was:
   1. Hostile Indians
   2. The Sierra Nevada Mountains
   3. The Great American Desert
   4. No major obstacles stood in the way of the railroad.

5. The workers employed by the Central Pacific Railroad were primarily:
   1. Irish
   2. German
   3. Chinese
   4. Busted out gold miners

6. The Central Pacific Railroad was headed by:
   1. The Ames Brothers
   2. The Big Four
   3. Theodore Judah
   4. Hiram Johnson

7. The Central Pacific bored through the Sierra Nevada Mountains using:
   1. Hand tools and black powder
   2. Machine drills
   3. Dynamite
   4. All of the above

8. The two railroads linked up at:
   1. Donner Pass, California
   2. Promontory Point, Utah
   3. Little Bighorn, Montana
   4. Pike's Peak, Colorado

Level 2 Questions

1. What was the source of most of the capital (funds) used to build the railroad?
   1. The private wealth of the Big Four
   2. Loans from the Federal Government
   3. Bonds sold to investors
   4. Money embezzled from stockholders

2. The materials needed to build the railroad (including rails, engines, tools, etc.) came from:
   1. Factories in California
   2. The East Coast of the United States
   3. Factories in China and Formosa
   4. Mexico

3. Riding on the transcontinental railroad, one could cross the US in roughly
   1. 6 months
   2. 1 month
   3. 3 weeks
   4. 10 days

4. "The Big Four":
   1. Became fabulously wealthy and influential.
   2. Went broke before their railroad could be completed
   3. Where thrown in jail for fraud
   4. Where models of honest, civic-minded businessmen.

5. Which of the following was not a member of the "Big Four?"
   1. Theodore Judah
   2. Charles Crocker
   3. Leland Stanford
   4. Mark Hopkins
   5. Collis P. Huntington

6. This passionate young engineer discovered a pass through the Sierras, and was indispensable in his advocacy of a transcontinental railroad. He died tragically young from Yellow Fever in 1863:
   1. Theodore Judah
   2. Charles Crocker
   3. John Donner
   4. Mark Hopkins

7. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in which year?
   1. 1865
   2. 1869
   3. 1876
   4. 1891

8. What was the fastest rate of laying railroad track achieved by the workers for the Central Pacific Railroad?
   1. 2 miles a day
   2. 5 miles a day
   3. 7 miles a day
   4. 10 miles a day

Level 3 Questions

1. Trains in California circa 1870 were fueled primarily by:
   1. Wood harvested from Sierra forests
   2. Coal shipped imported from Appalachian mines
   3. Oil drilled from California wells
   4. All of the above

2. It was difficult to get train engines and parts to California because:
   1. Priority for engines and parts went to the military.
   2. Engines and parts had to be shipped to California from the East.
   3. Confederate commerce raiders destroyed the American merchant marine.
   4. All of the above.

3. No transcontinental railroad could be built prior to the Civil War because:
   1. The technology necessary to build it had not yet been developed.
   2. The Northern and Southern states kept arguing about whether the Eastern terminus should be in the North or the South.
   3. Demand for such a railroad was limited
   4. All of the above.

4. What was the primary source of wealth for the members of the "Big Four"?
   1. Profits from running the completed railroad line.
   2. Profits from the construction companies they owned to which they contracted the construction of their railroad.
   3. Ill-gotten gains from actively defrauding the Federal Government.
   4. They made most of their money as dry good merchants in Sacramento prior to their involvement in the railroad.

5. The following industries benefited by the transcontinental railroad
   1. Wheat
   2. Citrus
   3. Mining
   4. All of the above

• Go to Test Bank
• Go to California Geography and Ecology
• Go to Native California
• Go to Spanish California
• Go to Mexican California
• Go to California Becomes a State: 1846 to 1850
• Go to The Gold Rush: 1849 to 1860
• Go to State Government