First Transcontinental Railroad Research Paper
Scott Stearns
B Period
The Chinese Emigrants Importance to the Continental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad, originally known as the “Pacific Railroad” constituted one of the most significant and ambitious American technological advancements of the 19th century following the building of the Erie Canal in the 1820s and the crossing of the Isthmus of Panama by the Panama Railroad in 1855. It served as a vital link for trade, commerce and travel that joined the eastern and western halves of the late 19th-century United States. The transcontinental railroad slowly ended most of the slower and more hazardous stagecoach lines and wagon trains that had preceded it. They provided much faster, safer, and cheaper transport east and west for people and goods across half a continent. Although the railway spanned across …show more content…
America, this revolutionary advancement in transportation could not have been possible had it not been for the Chinese emigrants who worked day in and day out to build it.
The Transcontinental Railroad was built between the years of 1863 and 1869 by two different companies, the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad. By linking up with the existing railway system of the Eastern United States, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States were linked by rail for the very first time. The construction of the railroad line was authorized through the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 during the American Civil War. The railway was supported by congress through 30-year U.S. government bonds, which is a bond issued by a national government, generally promising to pay a certain amount (the face value) on a certain date, as well as periodic interest payments, and extensive land grants of government-owned land. The railroads ' sales of land-grant lots provided for timber and crops which led to the rapid settling of the supposed "Great American Desert."
In February of 1860 Iowa representative Samuel Curtis introduced a bill to build the railroad. It was passed in the House but could not make it through the Senate. With the American Civil War raging and a secessionist movement in California gaining steam, the apparent need for the railroad became more urgent. In 1861 Curtis again introduced a bill to establish the railroad, but it did not pass. After the secession of the southern states, the House of Representatives on May 6, 1862, and the Senate on June 20 finally approved it. Lincoln signed it into law on July 1. The act established the two main lines—the Central Pacific from the west and the Union Pacific from the mid-west. Other rail lines were encouraged to build feeder lines.
The Transcontinental railroad was urged in part to connect the eastern and western states of the United States. The Central Pacific began working on the railway in 1863. Due to the Civil War workers, rails, ties, railroad engines, and supplies, the Union Pacific could not begin construction until July of 1865. As progress was made on the railroad there was a boom in population in the West as well as the decline of territory controlled by the Native Americans. Needing rapid communication, the two companies decided to build telegraph lines along the railroad as the track was being laid.
The Central Pacific, facing a labor shortage in the West, relied on mostly Chinese immigrant laborers. Although construction began on generally flat land, financial and labor problems were persistent. Throughout the first two years of construction only 50 miles of track were laid by the Pacific Railroad Company. The company needed over 5,000 workers yet only had 600 on the payroll by 1864. Chinese labor had been suggested since they had helped build the California Central Railroad. The idea behind using Chinese laborers was as Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific stated, “the Chinese made the Great Wall, didn’t they?” Even though many thought the Chinese were not fit to build the railroad, after a few days of construction it was decided to hire as many of these emigrants as possible.
Many Chinese emigrants were already in the states as gold miners or in the service industry such as laundries or kitchens. When it was realized how efficient these workers were, many more were imported from China. Most of the men received around one to three dollars per day, but the workers who were imported directly from China received much less. Some 2,000 workers decided to go on strike, only to have the strike die out within a week because of the lack of support from fellow workers.
Chinese railroad workers would be divided up into gangs of 12 to 20 each. Every group had a cook that would prepare meals as well as have hot water prepared each night so the workers could bathe. Each gang had a “head man” who each evening received from the foreman an account of the time credited to his gang and he in turn divided it among the individuals. The head man also bought and paid for all provisions used by his gang, the amount due him being collected from each individual at the end of the month.
The work of the Chinese laborers evolved as time passed. They began by being restricted to filling dump carts in 1865. As they proved themselves efficient in this task they were then asked to drive the carts as well as fill them. Next, because of the doubt that they were capable of heavy physical labor, they were using picks on softer excavations. With excellent results stemming from that, superintendent J.H. Strobridge began to hire freely. By the completion of the railroad four of every five men hired by the Central Pacific were in fact Chinese. This just goes to show how important they were in the construction of this technological advancement.
Work became increasingly difficult as time passed. To conquer the many sheer embankments the workers would often use techniques they had learned in China to complete tasks. In the fall of 1865 the Chinese laborers of the Central Pacific, derisively called by some, "Crocker 's pets," came up against Cape Horn, a nearly perpendicular rocky promontory. At this point the American River is 1,400 feet below the line of the road. Chinese workmen were lowered from the top of the cliff in wicker baskets. The basket men chipped and drilled holes for explosives, and then scrambled up the lines while gunpowder exploded beneath. Inch by inch, a road bed was gouged from the granite.
The track laying was divided up into various parts: one gang laid rails on the ties, drove the spikes, and bolted the splice bars; at the same time, another gang distributed telegraph poles and wire along the grade. Almost all of the track work was done manually, using shovels, picks, axes, black powder, two-wheeled dump carts, wheelbarrows, ropes, mules, and horses. In addition to track laying (which typically employed approximately 25% of the labor force), the operation also required the efforts of hundreds of tunnelers, explosive experts, bridge builders, blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, masons, and surveyors.
Winter snowstorms often took place during the construction of the railroad. Workers were usually forced to continue work even through these harsh times. The Central Pacific expanded its efforts to hire emigrant laborers because emigrants seemed to be more willing to tolerate the horrible conditions, and progress continued. Tunnels were often constructed to bypass the difficulties of the snow. To carve a tunnel, one worker holds a rock drill on granite, then two other workers swing eighteen-pound sledgehammers to chisel a hole. Much of the tunnel construction was followed by deaths from snow slides and avalanches. One report claimed that “a gang of Chinamen employed by the railroad was covered up by a snow slide and 4 or 5 died before they could be exhumed.... The snow fell to such a depth that one whole camp of Chinamen was covered up during the night and parties were digging them out when our informant left."
As the workers progressed into the High Sierras, progress was once again slowed. Snow overtook the crews in December of 1866. That winter was one of the most severe the workers had seen. Crocker ordered the workers to continue tunneling. The Chinese lived basically out of sight that winter. The shacks they were staying in would become buried in snow. They would dig chimneys and air shafts and lived by lantern light. They would tunnel from the camps to the tunnels they were working on in order to work long, underground shifts. Years later Strobridge told the following to a federal investigating commission: "The snow slides carried away our camps and we lost a good many men in these slides; many of them we did not find until the next season when the snow melted." However, in mid-1868, the Central Pacific finally broke through the Sierra barrier. The true cost in human lives will probably never be known since little records were kept, but it must have been high.
Toward the end of construction, Crocker was so convinced of the skill of the Chinese laborers that he decided to try for a record and lay 10 miles of track in one day. By late April 1869, the tracks were only fourteen miles from a junction with the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific forces set out to beat the track-laying record just achieved by the Union Pacific workers. On April 28, 1869, the Chinese and Irish work force of the Central Pacific laid 10 miles and 56 feet of track in a little less than 12 hours, beating the old U. P. record by more than 2 miles.
By early 1869, the two tracks were only miles away from each other, and the newly inaugurated President Ulysses S. Grant announced he would withhold federal funds until the two railroad companies agreed on a meeting point. The meeting point would be Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. It was here on May 10, 1869, that The Last Spike (or golden spike) joined the rails of the transcontinental railroad. In what may have been the first live mass-media event, the hammers and spike were wired to the telegraph line so that each hammer stroke would be heard as a click at telegraph stations nationwide. When the final spike had been driven the country erupted in celebration as the impossible had been accomplished.
Without the hard work and efforts from the Chinese laborers in the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, our development as a nation would have been slowed tremendously.
Their perseverance through harsh weather, cruel working conditions, and poor pay could not be under appreciated. The sacrifices made by the Chinese have truly shaped our nation as we know it today and their importance to our advancement is unprecedented.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing like It in the .World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print.
"American Experience: TV 's Most-watched History Series." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
Bain, David Haward. Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad. New York: Viking, 1999. Print.
"CHINESE-AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TO TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD." CHINESE-AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TO TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
"First Transcontinental Railroad." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 June 2012. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
"Transcontinental Railroad." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 07 Dec.
2012.
B Period
The Chinese Emigrants Importance to the Continental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad, originally known as the “Pacific Railroad” constituted one of the most significant and ambitious American technological advancements of the 19th century following the building of the Erie Canal in the 1820s and the crossing of the Isthmus of Panama by the Panama Railroad in 1855. It served as a vital link for trade, commerce and travel that joined the eastern and western halves of the late 19th-century United States. The transcontinental railroad slowly ended most of the slower and more hazardous stagecoach lines and wagon trains that had preceded it. They provided much faster, safer, and cheaper transport east and west for people and goods across half a continent. Although the railway spanned across …show more content…
America, this revolutionary advancement in transportation could not have been possible had it not been for the Chinese emigrants who worked day in and day out to build it.
The Transcontinental Railroad was built between the years of 1863 and 1869 by two different companies, the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad. By linking up with the existing railway system of the Eastern United States, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States were linked by rail for the very first time. The construction of the railroad line was authorized through the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 during the American Civil War. The railway was supported by congress through 30-year U.S. government bonds, which is a bond issued by a national government, generally promising to pay a certain amount (the face value) on a certain date, as well as periodic interest payments, and extensive land grants of government-owned land. The railroads ' sales of land-grant lots provided for timber and crops which led to the rapid settling of the supposed "Great American Desert."
In February of 1860 Iowa representative Samuel Curtis introduced a bill to build the railroad. It was passed in the House but could not make it through the Senate. With the American Civil War raging and a secessionist movement in California gaining steam, the apparent need for the railroad became more urgent. In 1861 Curtis again introduced a bill to establish the railroad, but it did not pass. After the secession of the southern states, the House of Representatives on May 6, 1862, and the Senate on June 20 finally approved it. Lincoln signed it into law on July 1. The act established the two main lines—the Central Pacific from the west and the Union Pacific from the mid-west. Other rail lines were encouraged to build feeder lines.
The Transcontinental railroad was urged in part to connect the eastern and western states of the United States. The Central Pacific began working on the railway in 1863. Due to the Civil War workers, rails, ties, railroad engines, and supplies, the Union Pacific could not begin construction until July of 1865. As progress was made on the railroad there was a boom in population in the West as well as the decline of territory controlled by the Native Americans. Needing rapid communication, the two companies decided to build telegraph lines along the railroad as the track was being laid.
The Central Pacific, facing a labor shortage in the West, relied on mostly Chinese immigrant laborers. Although construction began on generally flat land, financial and labor problems were persistent. Throughout the first two years of construction only 50 miles of track were laid by the Pacific Railroad Company. The company needed over 5,000 workers yet only had 600 on the payroll by 1864. Chinese labor had been suggested since they had helped build the California Central Railroad. The idea behind using Chinese laborers was as Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific stated, “the Chinese made the Great Wall, didn’t they?” Even though many thought the Chinese were not fit to build the railroad, after a few days of construction it was decided to hire as many of these emigrants as possible.
Many Chinese emigrants were already in the states as gold miners or in the service industry such as laundries or kitchens. When it was realized how efficient these workers were, many more were imported from China. Most of the men received around one to three dollars per day, but the workers who were imported directly from China received much less. Some 2,000 workers decided to go on strike, only to have the strike die out within a week because of the lack of support from fellow workers.
Chinese railroad workers would be divided up into gangs of 12 to 20 each. Every group had a cook that would prepare meals as well as have hot water prepared each night so the workers could bathe. Each gang had a “head man” who each evening received from the foreman an account of the time credited to his gang and he in turn divided it among the individuals. The head man also bought and paid for all provisions used by his gang, the amount due him being collected from each individual at the end of the month.
The work of the Chinese laborers evolved as time passed. They began by being restricted to filling dump carts in 1865. As they proved themselves efficient in this task they were then asked to drive the carts as well as fill them. Next, because of the doubt that they were capable of heavy physical labor, they were using picks on softer excavations. With excellent results stemming from that, superintendent J.H. Strobridge began to hire freely. By the completion of the railroad four of every five men hired by the Central Pacific were in fact Chinese. This just goes to show how important they were in the construction of this technological advancement.
Work became increasingly difficult as time passed. To conquer the many sheer embankments the workers would often use techniques they had learned in China to complete tasks. In the fall of 1865 the Chinese laborers of the Central Pacific, derisively called by some, "Crocker 's pets," came up against Cape Horn, a nearly perpendicular rocky promontory. At this point the American River is 1,400 feet below the line of the road. Chinese workmen were lowered from the top of the cliff in wicker baskets. The basket men chipped and drilled holes for explosives, and then scrambled up the lines while gunpowder exploded beneath. Inch by inch, a road bed was gouged from the granite.
The track laying was divided up into various parts: one gang laid rails on the ties, drove the spikes, and bolted the splice bars; at the same time, another gang distributed telegraph poles and wire along the grade. Almost all of the track work was done manually, using shovels, picks, axes, black powder, two-wheeled dump carts, wheelbarrows, ropes, mules, and horses. In addition to track laying (which typically employed approximately 25% of the labor force), the operation also required the efforts of hundreds of tunnelers, explosive experts, bridge builders, blacksmiths, carpenters, engineers, masons, and surveyors.
Winter snowstorms often took place during the construction of the railroad. Workers were usually forced to continue work even through these harsh times. The Central Pacific expanded its efforts to hire emigrant laborers because emigrants seemed to be more willing to tolerate the horrible conditions, and progress continued. Tunnels were often constructed to bypass the difficulties of the snow. To carve a tunnel, one worker holds a rock drill on granite, then two other workers swing eighteen-pound sledgehammers to chisel a hole. Much of the tunnel construction was followed by deaths from snow slides and avalanches. One report claimed that “a gang of Chinamen employed by the railroad was covered up by a snow slide and 4 or 5 died before they could be exhumed.... The snow fell to such a depth that one whole camp of Chinamen was covered up during the night and parties were digging them out when our informant left."
As the workers progressed into the High Sierras, progress was once again slowed. Snow overtook the crews in December of 1866. That winter was one of the most severe the workers had seen. Crocker ordered the workers to continue tunneling. The Chinese lived basically out of sight that winter. The shacks they were staying in would become buried in snow. They would dig chimneys and air shafts and lived by lantern light. They would tunnel from the camps to the tunnels they were working on in order to work long, underground shifts. Years later Strobridge told the following to a federal investigating commission: "The snow slides carried away our camps and we lost a good many men in these slides; many of them we did not find until the next season when the snow melted." However, in mid-1868, the Central Pacific finally broke through the Sierra barrier. The true cost in human lives will probably never be known since little records were kept, but it must have been high.
Toward the end of construction, Crocker was so convinced of the skill of the Chinese laborers that he decided to try for a record and lay 10 miles of track in one day. By late April 1869, the tracks were only fourteen miles from a junction with the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific forces set out to beat the track-laying record just achieved by the Union Pacific workers. On April 28, 1869, the Chinese and Irish work force of the Central Pacific laid 10 miles and 56 feet of track in a little less than 12 hours, beating the old U. P. record by more than 2 miles.
By early 1869, the two tracks were only miles away from each other, and the newly inaugurated President Ulysses S. Grant announced he would withhold federal funds until the two railroad companies agreed on a meeting point. The meeting point would be Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. It was here on May 10, 1869, that The Last Spike (or golden spike) joined the rails of the transcontinental railroad. In what may have been the first live mass-media event, the hammers and spike were wired to the telegraph line so that each hammer stroke would be heard as a click at telegraph stations nationwide. When the final spike had been driven the country erupted in celebration as the impossible had been accomplished.
Without the hard work and efforts from the Chinese laborers in the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, our development as a nation would have been slowed tremendously.
Their perseverance through harsh weather, cruel working conditions, and poor pay could not be under appreciated. The sacrifices made by the Chinese have truly shaped our nation as we know it today and their importance to our advancement is unprecedented.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing like It in the .World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print.
"American Experience: TV 's Most-watched History Series." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
Bain, David Haward. Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad. New York: Viking, 1999. Print.
"CHINESE-AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TO TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD." CHINESE-AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TO TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
"First Transcontinental Railroad." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 June 2012. Web. 07 Dec. 2012.
"Transcontinental Railroad." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 07 Dec.
2012.