Presidential Abraham Lincoln signed a bill on July 1, 1862 to authorize the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. On May 10, 1869, several years ahead of the timeline, the Pacific Railroad was completed at a joyous ceremony in Promontory Summit, Utah. Suppose the train coming from the East, actually called No. 119, came to a flat part of the country and could travel at a constant speed of 32 miles per hour for many miles. A) If the train ran for 3.5 hours before altering its speed, how far did the train travel during that stretch of the transcontinental strip? B) Show the formula and steps you utilized to arrive at your answer. Include the appropriate units in each step of your work. Velocity is the change in position divided by the change in times. Speed is the absolute value of velocity. Since the train originated from the train station and is traveling away from the train station, we will say that this train had a positive velocity. C) For the train to have a negative velocity, it would have to ______. D) Draw a graph of the velocity function on the grid. Scale the axes and name the vertical axis as v(t) mph and the horizontal axis as t hours E) Explain how the graoh of the velocity function can be used to calculate the toal distance the train traveled in 3.5 hours. Solution The Transcontinental Railroad was the result of the U.S. commitment to Manifest Destiny and its burgeoning industrial might. Long distances and slow transportation hampered contact between eastern and western commercial centers. Both the United States government and entrepreneurs sought faster transportation to link the two sections. For a decade after 1850, Congress studied possible transcontinental routes, but arguments over sectionalism and slavery blocked all plans. Not until after the South seceded and the Civil War had begun could Congress pass an effective transcontinental plan, the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. It called for two railroad companies to complete the transcontinental line. The railroad would be a \"land-grant railroad,\" meaning that the government would give each company 6,400 acres of land and up to $48,000 for every mile of track it built. The money capitalized the project, and the railroads could use the land to entice settlers to the West, who in turn would need the railroads to haul freight. But Congress, afraid to fund a project that would never be completed, wrote a caveat into the act: the railroads had to complete the project by July 1,1876, or they would forfeit the land, money, and all of the constructed track. The Union Pacific Railroad, a corporation formed for the venture, would build the eastern half of the line starting in Nebraska. The Central Pacific Railroad, owned by a group of California entrepreneurs including Collis Huntington and Leland Stanford, would build the western half. Preliminary work began, even as the nation still fought the Civil War. Surveyors and engineers had to scout and map workable routes. Af.

1. Presidential Abraham Lincoln signed a bill on July 1, 1862 to authorize the construction of the
first transcontinental railroad. On May 10, 1869, several years ahead of the timeline, the Pacific
Railroad was completed at a joyous ceremony in Promontory Summit, Utah. Suppose the train
coming from the East, actually called No. 119, came to a flat part of the country and could travel
at a constant speed of 32 miles per hour for many miles.
A) If the train ran for 3.5 hours before altering its speed, how far did the train travel during that
stretch of the transcontinental strip?
B) Show the formula and steps you utilized to arrive at your answer. Include the appropriate
units in each step of your work.
Velocity is the change in position divided by the change in times. Speed is the absolute value of
velocity. Since the train originated from the train station and is traveling away from the train
station, we will say that this train had a positive velocity.
C) For the train to have a negative velocity, it would have to ______.
D) Draw a graph of the velocity function on the grid. Scale the axes and name the vertical axis
as v(t) mph and the horizontal axis as t hours
E) Explain how the graoh of the velocity function can be used to calculate the toal distance the
train traveled in 3.5 hours.
Solution
The Transcontinental Railroad was the result of the U.S. commitment to Manifest
Destiny and its burgeoning industrial might. Long distances and slow transportation hampered
contact between eastern and western commercial centers. Both the United States government and
entrepreneurs sought faster transportation to link the two sections. For a decade after 1850,
Congress studied possible transcontinental routes, but arguments over sectionalism and slavery
blocked all plans. Not until after the South seceded and the Civil War had begun could Congress
pass an effective transcontinental plan, the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. It called for two
railroad companies to complete the transcontinental line. The railroad would be a "land-grant
railroad," meaning that the government would give each company 6,400 acres of land and up to
$48,000 for every mile of track it built. The money capitalized the project, and the railroads
could use the land to entice settlers to the West, who in turn would need the railroads to haul
freight. But Congress, afraid to fund a project that would never be completed, wrote a caveat into

2. the act: the railroads had to complete the project by July 1,1876, or they would forfeit the land,
money, and all of the constructed track. The Union Pacific Railroad, a corporation formed for
the venture, would build the eastern half of the line starting in Nebraska. The Central Pacific
Railroad, owned by a group of California entrepreneurs including Collis Huntington and Leland
Stanford, would build the western half. Preliminary work began, even as the nation still fought
the Civil War. Surveyors and engineers had to scout and map workable routes. After the war,
several army generals served as engineers on the project. They included Grenville Dodge, a
favorite general of Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, who became the Union Pacific's
chief engineer. Work progressed rapidly after the Civil War. The project attracted many former
soldiers, both Union and Confederate, as well as Irish and Chinese immigrants. The Central
Pacific quickly had to tackle the rugged Sierras in California. Rather than go over or around
them, engineers chose to go through them. But such a plan required tons of dynamite and
someone to set the charges. The Chinese were often willing to do the hazardous work for less
pay than other Americans, and they became a backbone of the Central Pacific work crew. Men
working on both lines braved the extremes of heat and cold, hostile Native Americans, and
disease as they advanced. The two railroads reached northern Utah at about the same time, and
the work crews passed by each other, for no one had decided where the rails were to join.
Government engineers stepped in and selected Promontory Point, Utah, for the connection. In a
ceremony that included the driving of a symbolic golden railroad spike, the two lines linked on
May 10,1869, seven years ahead of schedule.