Within three years, 80 percent of the Central Pacific workforce was made up of Chinese workers, and they proved to be essential to the task of laying the line through the Sierra Nevadas. Once believed to be too frail to perform arduous manual labor, the Chinese workers accomplished amazing and dangerous feats no other workers would or could do. They blasted tunnels through the solid granite -- sometimes progressing only a foot a day.
They often lived in the tunnels as they worked their way through the solid granite, saving precious time and energy from entering and exiting the worksite each day. They were routinely lowered down sheer cliff faces in makeshift baskets on ropes where they drilled holes, filled them with explosives, lit the fuse and then were yanked up as fast as possible to avoid the blast.
While the Central Pacific fought punishing conditions moving eastward through mountains, across ravines, and through blizzards, the Union Pacific faced resistance from the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes who were seeing their homelands invaded and irrevocably changed. The railroad workers were armed and oftentimes protected by U. Calvary and friendly Pawnee Indians, but the workforce routinely faced Native American raiding parties that attacked surveyors and workers, stole livestock and equipment, and pulled up track and derailed locomotives.
Both railroad companies battled against their respective obstacles to lay the most miles of track, therefore gaining the most land and money. Although the Central Pacific had a two-year head start over the Union Pacific, the rough terrain of the Sierra Nevadas limited their construction to only miles by the end of But once through the Sierras, the Central Pacific rail lines moved at tremendous speed, crossing Nevada and reaching the Utah border in From the east, the Union Pacific completed its line through Wyoming and was moving at an equal tempo from the east.
No end point had been set for the two rail lines when President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act in , but a decision had to be made soon. By early , the Central Pacific and Union Pacific were closing in on each other across northern Utah, aided by a Mormon workforce under contract to both companies.
Indeed, at one point the graders from both companies, working ahead of track layers, actually passed one another as they were unwilling to concede territory to their competitors. Less than one month later, on May 10, , locomotives from the two railroads met nose-to-nose to signal the joining of the two lines.
At p. Canons boomed in San Francisco and Washington. Bells rang and fire whistles shrieked as people celebrated across the country. The nation was indeed united. Manifest Destiny was a reality.
The six-month trip to California had been reduced to two weeks. And within only a few years, the transcontinental railroad turned the frontier wilderness of the western territories into regions populated by European-Americans, enabling business and commerce to proliferate and effectively ending the traditional Native American way of life.
Three other ties—one of gold, one of silver and gold, and one of silver, were also presented at the ceremony. The original golden spike is now part of the collection of Stanford University, which was founded by Leland Stanford and his wife, Jane, in in memory of their only son.
The building of the transcontinental railroad opened up the American West to more rapid development. With the completion of the track, the travel time for making the 3,mile journey across the United States was cut from a matter of months to under a week.
Connecting the two American coasts made the economic export of Western resources to Eastern markets easier than ever before. The railroad also facilitated westward expansion , escalating conflicts between Native American tribes and settlers who now had easier access to new territories. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
There was a time when traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast meant riding for months in a horse-drawn wagon or stagecoach, or sailing southward to Panama and then crossing the Isthmus to board another ship for a journey up the other coast.
But that all changed on May 10, Construction on the Transcontinental Railroad began on January 8, in Sacramento, when workers for the Central Pacific Railroad first broke ground for the track.
Eleven months later, their counterparts in the Midwest—workers for the Union Pacific Railroad—began breaking Velvet cushions and gilt-framed mirrors. Feasts of antelope, trout, berries and Champagne.
In , a New York Times reporter experienced the ultimate in luxury—and he did so not in the parlor of a Gilded Age magnate, but on a train headed from Omaha, Nebraska to San Francisco, They toiled through back-breaking labor during both frigid winters and blazing summers.
Hundreds died from explosions, landslides, accidents and disease. And even though they made major contributions to the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, these 15, to 20, The Underground Railroad was a network of people, African American as well as white, offering shelter and aid to escaped enslaved people from the South.
It developed as a convergence of several different clandestine efforts. The exact dates of its existence are not known, but it They sold or gave shares in this Liverpool and Manchester Railway The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in September marked the dawn of steam-powered rail travel.
Prior to its construction, most railways were horse-drawn and used to haul freight such as coal over short distances. Today many Americans see Labor Day as time off from work, an opportunity to enjoy a barbecue with friends and family and a final moment of summertime relaxation before the busy fall season begins. No other man would be more important or more closely identified with the history of the Union Pacific and all western railroading than General Dodge.
Trained as a civil engineer, Dodge would influence the Union Pacific's destiny from the first survey to its reorganization 30 years later.
Surveyor and civil engineer. From to , Dey directed surveys of the road to Promontory, helped secure land for right of way, ordered equipment, arranged tie contracts, raised funds for construction and served as chief engineer until tendering his resignation from the project over disagreements with Durant over propriety.
In his letter of resignation, Dey wrote that he wanted no part of repeating [the mistakes already made] and with reluctance, "resigned the best position in my profession this country has ever offered to any man. Harriman, who, when straightening the main line in , constructed the "Lane CutOff" directly across the route laid out by Dey.
Together, the Casement brothers laid the entire track and undertook some of the grading of the Union Pacific road from just west of Fremont, Nebraska, to Promontory. Though both men were short of stature Jack was 5'4" and Dan stood at "five feet nothing" according to one wag , they were not men to be crossed. Both hardbitten and fearless, they handled the roughest of Irish crews. Durant during a crucial money crunch in Oakes Ames, admired for his lack of pretense and his willingness to take on difficult tasks, was referred to by President Lincoln as the "broad shouldered Ames.
Dodge wrote in his reminiscences, "Nothing but the faith and pluck of the Ameses, fortified with their extensive credit, carried the thing through. Oliver Ames, a bright, tactful manager and a punctilious bookkeeper, was later to become president of the UP from Lee surrendered at Appomattox in , and the18th president of the United States from President Grant was in office during construction of the transcontinental railroad, and was one of its strongest advocates.
Railroad magnate, former president of the Illinois Central and president of the Union Pacific from Known for possessing a vision of the new order toward which railroads were evolving, Harriman embraced gigantic undertakings and served as a catalyst in changing how railroads were run, specifically promoting consolidation and acquiring rival companies. One scholar writes of Harriman, "If they would not sell the colt, Harriman would buy the mare. George Pullman, together with Andrew Carnegie, approached T.
Durant in with the idea of sleeper cars. Pullman cars of the s and '70s eased travel and offered some luxury, notwithstanding the perils of early train travel. The Pullman Company eventually would add diners, parlor cars, observation cars and other passenger train cars to their line, constantly making improvements in their product.
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