Question 1 of 98
Passage: In the late nineteenth century, many Midwestern towns expanded not because of political decrees or sudden disasters, but because railroad companies chose them as freight hubs. Grain elevators rose beside the tracks, banks followed the elevators, and schools followed the banks. Historians once treated this growth as an almost inevitable result of "progress." Newer research, however, shows that economic geography—freight rates, land prices, and access to markets—largely decided which towns thrived and which faded. Question: According to the passage, the primary cause of Midwestern town growth was: