Question

Who was an engineer who lobbied Congress to pass the Transcontinental Railroad Act but died before the railroad was finished

Answer 1

The correct answer is Theodore Judah. Judah was an American railroad and civil engineer who lobbied Congress to pass the Transcontinental Railroad Act with the purpose of building a railroad that would link the Mississippi River Valley to the Pacific coast. The act was finally passed in 1862; construction began that same year and finished in in 1869. However, Judah died in 1863, years before construction had finished.