Question

questions 1 through 3 refer to the following.
the work accomplished - ceremonies at promontory summit.
\special dispatch to the new york times
promontory, utah, monday, may 10.
the long-looked for moment has arrived. the inhabitants of the atlantic seaboard and dwellers of the pacific slopes are henceforth emphatically one people. your correspondent is writing on promontory summit amid the deafening shouts of the multitude, with the tick, tick, of the telegraph close to his ear. the proceedings of the day are:
laying of the two rails, one opposite the other-one for the union pacific railroad, and one for the central pacific railroad.
driving of the last spikes by the two companies; the telegraph is to be attached to the spike of the central pacific company, and the last blow to announce to the world by telegraph the completion of the pacific railroad.
telegram to the president of the united states
telegram to the associated press.\
the new york times, news report, 1869
3 mark for review
which of the following developments best explains a cause of the historical process described in the excerpt?
a nativists rejected the use of immigrant workers for transportation infrastructure construction.
b plantation owners sought improved transportation to expand the sharecropping system.
c difficult working conditions prompted transportation workers to call for the creation of labor unions.
d government subsidies facilitated the construction of transportation and communication networks.

Explanation:

The excerpt describes the 1869 completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad (Pacific Railroad) and the use of telegraph to announce it.

• Option A is incorrect: Immigrant workers (Chinese for Central Pacific, Irish for Union Pacific) were heavily used for this project, so nativist rejection does not fit.
• Option B is incorrect: The railroad was built to connect coasts, not to expand sharecropping, which was a Southern agricultural system unrelated to this transcontinental project.
• Option C is incorrect: While railroad workers faced harsh conditions, the excerpt focuses on the completion of the project, not labor union formation as a cause of its construction.
• Option D is correct: The Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads relied heavily on federal government land grants and subsidies to fund the construction of the railroad, and the telegraph network (used to announce the completion) also benefited from federal support for cross-country communication infrastructure.

Answer:

D. Government subsidies facilitated the construction of transportation and communication networks