1. Railroad Jeopardy 500 500 500 500 500 400 400 400 400 400 300 300 300 300 300 200 200 200 200 200 100 100 100 100 100 Leading Figures Government Intervention Growth of an Industry The “Old Cars” Railroads Now & Then
2. This leading railroad in both modern American society and during the Gilded Age was commissioned by Congress in 1862 to spread west from Omaha, Nebraska. Made possible by the secession of southern states, which ended deadlock between the North and South over the issue of building a transcontinental railroad.
3. The Federal government granted over 150 million acres of land for the construction of these (specific) prior to the turn of the 20th Century. (Hint: The Gadsden Purchase)
4. F rontier villages that had the privilege of being touched by a major railroad and began to flourish in the Gilded Age. T he towns that were bypassed often fell off the map and became known as these.
5. These imaginary lines were established by major railroad companies in 1883 to assist in the scheduling of shipments.
6. What is true or what is false ? That there were only about 35,000 miles of railroad track in the year 1865, but by the turn of the century, this number had reached approximately 125,000.
7. The shift from iron rails to rails of this metal led to the vast development of its industry and paved the way for tycoons like Andrew Carnegie.
8. The ABS brakes on vehicles of today call to mind the advent of this 1870s improvement on the efficiency and safety of trains.
9. This car company was to the car industry what the Union Pacific initially was to the railroad industry, that is, the largest.
10. Similar to regulated dimensions of modern automobiles, railroad companies during the Gilded Age standardized this dimension of tracks to remove the hassle of many transfers to other rail lines for passengers.
11. There are approximately this many miles of roads for automobiles in the U.S. today. Compare that with the hundreds of thousands of miles of railroad tracks during the Gilded Age. (Hint: _ , 000, 000 miles)
12. Railroad workers were often attacked by this group of people, opponents to the westward expansion of “civilized” society.
13. This corrupt construction company overcharged for its services in the development of railroads after the Civil War, but stayed out of trouble with the federal government by bribing Congressmen to pretend they had no idea.
14. Railroad companies charged an average of this many U.S. dollars per acre of land in order to pay off loans, causing a rise in westward expansion after the Civil War.
15. As the head of the Central Pacific Railroad, this California town emerged as one of the most prosperous in the West due to its construction of railroads leading to the East.
16. This 1860s upgrade of the common boxcar was considered a “traveling hotel,” increasing the luxury of trains, although facing much opposition for having kerosene lamps inside of their wooden structure. For this, their other nickname was the “ wheeled torture chamber.”
17. This federal regulation forced railroad companies to openly publish their rates and forbid them to charge more for short trips than long ones.
18. This recent act by the Bush administration was among the most prominent acts of intervention by the government to protect the car industry in its entire history. (The casual term)
19. Forced to give up much of his Berkshire Hathaway stock in order to prevent monopoly of the railroad industry with his acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
20. An organization formed in the 1870s to prohibit the ability of railroad companies to monopolize the industry and overcharge for the shipping of goods.
21. This 1886 Supreme Court case decided that individual states had no power to regulate interstate commerce.
22. By 1900, this man was producing one-fourth of the nation’s Bessemer steel used in the construction of railroads.
23. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, talented men began taking positions in this realm of American life as opposed to political offices.
24. This man developed a New York Central rail line that ran from New York to Chicago and operated along more than 4500 miles of track.
25. This Wall Street banker played a major role in the development of the railroad industry by financing the reorganization of railroads and by buying out Andrew Carnegie’s steel piping company for over $400 million.
26. President who passed the Sherman Anti-trust act, one which forbade combinations without any differentiation between good or bad trusts. However, the act proved unsuccessful, demonstrating the lack of strength of the federal government as a result of a laissez- faire economy.
