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Article: Building the Transcontinental RAILROAD.
- Article from:
- Junior Scholastic
- Article date:
- February 26, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It was the greatest engineering feat of the 19th century--and it transformed the U.S.
On May 10, 1869, a crowd gathered in dusty Promontory Point, Utah. All eyes were on Leland Stanford of the Central Pacific Railroad. He raised a silver-tipped hammer and drove a golden spike that completed the Transcontinental Railroad.
In an instant, a telegraph signal alerted people from New York to California of the news. Across the country, cannons blasted and celebrations began. The entire U.S., from coast to coast, was now united by rail.
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