Gregory Franklin Jr., age 12, of Helena, Mont., for his question:
WHEN WAS THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD COMPLETED?
Congress agreed to a transcontinental railroad plan when it passed the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act gave two companies the responsibility for building the line, with one company working from the west and the other from the east.
The tracks of the two railroads finally met at Promontory, a point in the Promontory Mountains of Northern Utah, on May 10, 1869. The last spike driven was made of gold to mark the railroad's completion.
The spike is now at Stanford University in California.
The proposed route was to roughly follow the 42nd parallel from Omaha, Neb., to Sacramento, Calif. Union Railraod was to lay track westward while the Central Pacific Railroad was to go east.
Both companies faced gigantic construction tasks. The Central Pacific started work in 1863 and had to cross the towering Sierra Nevada in eastern California. Union Pacific started the second section in 1865 and had to cross the rugged Rockies.
Rails, ties and all other supplies had to be transported long distances. And workers were difficult to find. Union Pacific finally hired thousands of unskilled Chinese laborers called coolies while the Union Pacific hired thousands of European immigrants and Civil War veterans. Each company worked toward the other.
By 1868, the work had turned into a race between the two railroads to see which company could lay the most track in the shortest time. Work continued in all kinds of weather.
When the two companies met with their tracks in 1869, North America became the first continent in the world to have a rail line from coast to coast.
The Canadian Pacific Railroad completed Canada's first transcontinental line in 1885. It ran from Montreal, Quebec, to Vancouver, British Columbia.
By the end of the 1880s, the United States had four more transcontinental rail lines. Vast regions of both Canada and the United States were opened to settlement and trade.
Congress granted railroads large tracts of land and millions of dollars in government land. About 8 percent of all existing railroad mileage was built with the aid of such grants.
In return for the grants, all United States railroads agreed to carry government troops and property at half the standard rates and U.S. mail at four fifths the standard rates. These rates remained in effect until the mid 1940s.
Railroad building spread quickly throughout all of Europe in the late 1800s.
The Simplon Tunnel, which links Switzerland and Italy, was completed in 1906. This is one of the world's longest railroad tunnels. It extends 12 1/3 miles.