Crossing the Nation

The Golden Spike changed the face of the nation.  Travel across the country went from months to weeks.  Mail went from weeks to days.  Freight could now be shipped from coast to coast.  The nation would never be the same.

Please see the General History page for more books and links.

The other units that go along with this unit are:

Resources

Books

Non-Fiction--Information books:

• Building the Transcontinental Railroad  by James Barter (Lucent, 2002; ISBN 150068809)
• Full Steam Ahead; the race to build a transcontinental railroad  by Rhoda Blumberg (National Geographic Society 1996; ISBN0792227158
• Railroad Fever (National Geographic, 2003; ISBN 0792269934)
• The Transcontinental Railroad  by Edward F. Dolan (Benchmark, 2003; ISBN 076141455X)
• The Transcontinental Railroad  by Jil Fine (Scholastic, 2005; ISBN 0516251287)
• The Transcontinental Railroad  by Linda Thompson (Rourke, 2005; ISBN 159515227X)
• The Transcontinental Railroad  by Michael V. Uschan (World Almanac, 2004; ISBN 0826853822)
• The Transcontinental Railroad  by Robert Young (Dillon, 1997; ISBN 0875186114)
• The Transcontinental Railroad and Westward Expansion  by Tim McNeese (Enslow, 2006; ISBN0766025721)
• The Transcontinental Railroad in American History (Enslow)
• To the Golden Mountain by Lila Perl (Benchmark, 2003; ISBN 0761413243)
• You Wouldn't Want to Work on the Railroad! by Ian Graham, illustrated by David Antram (Franklin Watts, 2001; ISBN 0531146030)
   

Activity Books:

Fiction:

•  The Great Railroad Race by Kristiana Gregory (Scholastic)

Audio/visual:

•  American Experience: Transcontinental Railroad (2005) by PBS

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Websites

•  Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum (click on the history tab for GREAT links)
•  Railroad Historical Society (lots of links)
• Railroad Maps from Library of Congress
• Pacific Southwest Railway Museum
• Railroad timeline from Pacific Southwest Railway Museum  (links through the site)
• Association of American Rilroads
• Trains from Wikipedia
   

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Projects

We put one flapbook together as a family.

Railroad lines: Central Pacific (Jason), Union Pacific (Matt), Southern Pacific (mom), Northern pacific (Chris, Great Northern (Mike), Baltimore Ohio (Kray), Reading, Burlington Norhtern Santa Fe, Amtrack,

Cars: Freight (Kray--flatbottom, Jason-boxcar), Passenger (Matt-sleeper), Engine (Mike, Caboose (Chris)

People: John Stevens (mom), Richard Trevirhick (Matt), Theodore Judah (Jason)
Union: Grenville Dodge (Mike) Thomas Durant (mom)
Central: Charles Crocker (Chris), Collis Huntington (Chris), Leland Stanford (mom), Mark Hopkins (Mom), Chinese Workers (Kray)

Timeline (Matt), Maps (Kray), Vocabulary (Chris), Steam vs. Diesel (Mike), History (Jason)

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Writing assignments

Each part of the flapbook was a 1/2 page written report.

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Completed: February 2007

Last update: May, 2007

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