Q 01/05

Which canal opened in 1869, the same year as the transcontinental railroad?

A) Panama

B) Erie

C) Suez

D) Kiel

Answer · why

C) Suez

Suez. The canal opened in Egypt that November, six months after the rails met, and took the trade between Asia and Europe that the railroad's promoter...

Q 02/05

At which Utah Territory location did the Central Pacific and Union Pacific meet in 1869?

A) Brigham City

B) Salt Lake City

C) Promontory Summit

D) Weber Canyon

Answer · why

C) Promontory Summit

Promontory Summit. Reporters in 1869 called it Promontory Point, a spot some 35 miles to the south, and the wrong name has been repeated in textbooks ...

Q 03/05

Who ceremonially drove the golden Last Spike?

A) Mark Hopkins

B) Oliver Ames

C) Samuel Montague

D) Leland Stanford

Answer · why

D) Leland Stanford

Leland Stanford. He only tapped the gold spike into a drilled hole; when he swung at the iron one wired to the telegraph he is said to have hit the ti...

Q 04/05

As Secretary of War in the 1850s, which future Confederate leader oversaw the Army's surveys for a Pacific railroad?

A) Robert E. Lee

B) Jefferson Davis

C) Alexander Stephens

D) John C. Breckinridge

Answer · why

B) Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis. He favored a line across the southern territories, and a central route could be voted through only after the Southern states had left...

Q 05/05

What one-word telegraph message announced the line's completion?

A) JOINED

B) FINISHED

C) UNITED

D) DONE

Answer · why

D) DONE

DONE. The spike and hammer were wired to the telegraph so the whole country could hear the blows, but the swing is said to have missed, leaving the op...