Talk:First transcontinental railroad

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First transcontinental railroad was one of the Engineering and technology good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
April 1, 2007	Good article reassessment	Delisted

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A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on May 10, 2016.

"Emigrants" leave and "immigrants" arrive

Which parallel?

The first paragraph of the Authorization and Funding section reads:

In February 1860, Iowa Representative Samuel Curtis introduced a bill to fund the railroad. It passed the House but died when it could not be reconciled with the Senate version due to opposition from southern states who wanted a southern route near the 42nd parallel.

This doesn't make sense, because the final route through Omaha, Nebraska and Promontory, Utah goes close to the 42nd parallel. Is the 32nd parallel intended? It comes close to Jackson, Mississippi; Shreveport, Louisiana; Dallas-Fort Worth; El Paso, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona.

Msramming (talk) 21:30, 4 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You are correct that the southern states did not want the railroad near the 42nd parallel. It looks like some editing back in 2016 confused the language that southern Democrats opposed the 42nd parallel with them supporting a 42nd parallel route. This edit appears to be where the erroneous change occurs:

"20:10, 12 October 2016‎ Btphelps talk contribs‎ 132,147 bytes -281‎ →‎Authorization and funding: edit intro graf undo"

The previous version said:

"The Acts were approved in part because the American Civil War removed southern Democratic opposition to a central route near the 42nd parallel."

Then the modified version changes to speak to the initial failure to pass:

"It passed the House but died when it could not be reconciled with the Senate version due to opposition from southern states who wanted a southern route near the 42nd parallel.[25]"

Reference 26 in the original became Reference 25 and was used to cite the opposition from southern states to the location of the route but did not originally mention a parallel.

This needs to be corrected but I'll defer to someone more capable to correct the statement without messing up the structure of the section.

--Kchambers (talk) 17:39, 10 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 10 February 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: page moved. Strong and valid consensus. Andrewa (talk) 06:41, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

First Transcontinental Railroad → First transcontinental railroad – It's the "first transcontinental railroad", not the "First Transcontinental Railroad", which would imply it was an official or at least a widely used name. The article should be retitled in lower case and corresponding changes made within it.

(The Panama Railroad was decades earlier, and what this one really was is only the first railroad connecting the west coast of the US to the existing eastern rail network, but the description "first transcontinental railroad" is widely used, so never mind these points.) -- 142.112.149.107 (talk) 02:48, 10 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Support per WP:COMMONNAME. The Google Ngrams indicate that the uncapitalized version is the most common.[1] Rreagan007 (talk) 03:33, 16 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Images

Wow, of all the many images in this excellent article currently only one is unfree, and it's one of the last few... the movie poster. But it just shows you do need to check them all. Andrewa (talk) 06:56, 18 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Chinese railroad workers sierra nevada.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:53, 7 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: The History of Immigration in the United States

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 30 August 2022 and 9 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Charliewerth (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Charliewerth (talk) 13:08, 5 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]