| A | B |
|---|
Omaha, Nebraska,  | the starting point of the Union Pacific Railroad,  |
Sacramento, California,  | the starting point of the Central Pacific Railroad,  |
| Chinese immigrants | workers on the Central Pacific Railroad |
| Irish immigrants and Civil War veterans | workers on the Union Pacific Railroad |
Promontory Point, Utah,  | the meeting point for the two railroads,  |
Abraham Lincoln,  | president who supported the building of the trancontinental railroad |
| Sierra Nevada | California mountain range that was in the way of the transcontinental railroad,  |
| 10 square miles of free land | the reward for each mile of railroad track that the railroads laid down |
| Transcontinental Railroad | Railroad from Sacramento, CA to Omaha, NE,  |
| US government loans | money that railroad companies could use to build tracks; it had to be repaid |
Buffalo,  | a main source of food for Native Americans in the Great Plains; the transcontinental railroad helped destroy herds of them |
Great Plains,  | land in the central US that is very flat; many Native Americans lived there,  |
| Homestead Act | a law that gave 160 acres of free land to people who settled west and farmed the land |
