Which of the following is the best objective summary of the article “The Transcontinental Railroad”? A The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad had a great impact on the settlement of the United States. Before the railroad was built, travel across the country was long and difficult. People on the west coast were mostly cut off from the rest of the country. When the railroad was built, towns sprung up along the way, and new businesses opened. This had a positive impact on the United States economy. The railroad also made communication and trade from coast to coast much easier and more efficient, which helped create a more united country. B The Transcontinental Railroad was a terrible undertaking that nearly ruined the American landscape and devastated the lives of Native Americans. The construction of the railroad destroyed environmental habitats and decimated the buffalo population. The benefits of constructing this railroad are outweighed by the negative impact that the railroad had on the lives of Native Americans and the animals and landscape it destroyed. While many new towns and business were built as a result of the railroad, its destructive effects were far greater than its benefits. C The Transcontinental Railroad took more than six years to complete. Railroad workers had to blast tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California using dynamite and nitroglycerin. Sometimes workers had to carve out ledges on the faces of mountainsides to lay track. The railroad companies built huge bridges to support train tracks over rivers and streams. Much of this construction caused environmental devastation, bringing in pollution and destroying vegetation. Native Americans lost their homes and were forced onto reservations, and buffalo, once plentiful on the American plains, became nearly extinct due to hunting by railroad passengers. D The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad forever changed the landscape and the economy of the United States, in both positive and negative ways. The b