transcontinental railroads
Coast-to-coast trains
Transcontinental railroads are railway lines that cross an entire continent, connecting coasts or distant borders.
The term most often refers to the first such American line, completed in 1869, which linked the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and transformed westward expansion, commerce, and travel.
The transcontinental railroad cut cross-country travel from months to days.
Other nations built their own: Canada's ran from Montreal to Vancouver, Russia's Trans-Siberian connects Moscow to Vladivostok.
- Union PacificMajor American freight railroad
- Central PacificRailroad from California eastward
- Rocky MountainsWestern North American cordillera
- locomotivesPowered rail vehicles
- steel railsMetal track for locomotives
Chinese laborers · trade routes · Sierra Nevada · depots · rail yards · labor movements · freight cars · Homestead Act · westward expansion · Gilded Age · migration patterns · tunnels · Great Plains · coast to coast · Pacific Coast · urbanization · bridges · Atlantic Coast
- trainstrains, train, locomotive, locomotives, steam locomotive
transcontinental railroadssubway systems
Urban underground rail transit
light rail · branch lines · streetcars · urban transit · trolleys
transcontinental railroadsfootpaths
Routes for pedestrians
walking trails · wagon trails · sailing ships · canal systems · canoe routes
transcontinental railroadswilderness
Uncultivated, uninhabited natural region
transcontinental, railroad, continental, continent, continents, intercontinental, railed, railings, railway