Read the text and answer the question.
Theodore D. Judah, the engineer of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, became obsessed with the desire to build a transcontinental railroad. In 1860 he approached Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker, leading Sacramento merchants, and soon convinced them that building a transcontinental line would make them rich and famous. The prospect of tapping the wealth of the Nevada mining towns and forthcoming legislation for federal aid to railroads stimulated them to incorporate the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California. This line later merged with the Southern Pacific. It was through Judah's efforts and the support of Abraham Lincoln . . . that the Pacific Railroad finally became a reality.
The Railroad Act of 1862 put government support behind the transcontinental railroad and helped create the Union Pacific Railroad, which subsequently joined with the Central Pacific at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869[.]
— Library of Congress
What was the ultimate motivation behind the development described in the text?
(1 point)
Responses
improving relations between the United States and European powers through trade expansion
expanding economic opportunities for American Indians in the United States
enabling the United States to spread democracy throughout the Americas
realizing the Manifest Destiny of the United States by connecting the East and West Coasts