What were some of the benefits of the transcontinental railroad?

The First Transcontinental Railroad connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by rail for the first time in history. Open to traffic on May 10, 1869, with the Golden Spike in Promontory, Utah, the route established a mechanized trancontinental transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West.

Authorized by the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 and supported by the US government, it was the culmination of a long-term move to build such a line and was a crowning achievement of Abraham Lincoln's presidency, though completed four years after his death. The construction of the railroad required enormous feats of engineering and work on the plains and high mountains crossing the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad, which built the western and eastern lines respectively.

The railroad was considered the greatest American technological achievement of the nineteenth century. It served as a vital link to commerce and travel that connected the eastern and western halves to the late nineteenth century in the United States.