G.+Promontory+Summit,+Transcontinental+Railroad,+1869

//** Transcontinental Railroad and the Promontory Summit **// Thesis: Using a cheap labor force, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. Railroads were a key factor in imperialism, allowing easy transportation for raw materials, finished products and troop movements. **Transcontinental Railroad:**
 * Railroad system that branches out all over America and connects the east and west coast
 * Two companies worked on it, Central Pacific, starting in California, and Union Pacific, starting in Nebraska
 * Worked on mostly by Chinese immigrants who had come for the Califonia Gold Rush and had been unsuccessful




 * Promontory Point: **
 * In Utah, the point where both railroad companies joined to complete the Transcontinental railroad
 * Connected by a golden spike, driven in by Stanford, now displayed in Stanford University
 * Significance:**
 * Allowed easy travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts
 * Original means of travel by caravan took 6 months or more. Railroad shortened travel to one week
 * Effective means of transporting natural resources and raw materials from Pacific to Atlantic and transporting finished goods from Atlantic to Pacific
 * Made by a cheap labor force