How does the author make a connection between

the First Transcontinental Railroad and the first

transcontinental flight?

Answer: by explaining that the travel time in the air was about the same as by train.

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

The author makes a connection between the First Transcontinental Railroad and the first transcontinental flight because it wants to transmit the idea that traveling by air was the same time as traveling by train.

At the same time, the author makes a distinction between the First Transcontinental Railroad and the first transcontinental passenger flight in 1936 was by explaining how much faster the first transcontinental passenger flights were.

The author says that the first transcontinental passenger flights were more expensive than traveling by the transcontinental train. Not all kinds of people could travel by air. So that is why cars became popular years later. Traveling by road was something that Americans liked to do, and the author set the example of traveling Route 66.