The Transcontinental Railroad

The Transcontinental Railroad (1869) is the name given to the first railway built between Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California, making coast-to-coast train travel across the US possible. What used to take four to six months now took just six days.

Crooked companies making crooked lines: The US government had wanted a transcontinental railroad since at least 1845. In 1862 the contract went to two companies: the Central Pacific, which built the line eastward from Sacramento, and the Union Pacific, which built westward from Omaha. Both companies were hugely corrupt (the Credit Mobilier scandal, for example) – and did not take the shortest route so that they could make more money.

The Union Pacific went across flatter land but had to fight off more Native Americans, whose land they were taking. They employed 20,000 men, about 300 were Black, 3,000 were Irish.

The Central Pacific went across mountain and desert almost the whole way, meaning they had to build more bridges and tunnels. They employed about 12,000 men, some were Black (pictured below), 11,000 were Chinese.

Labour:

• Irish Americans: paid $35 a month with board, 8 hours a day, Sundays off.
• Chinese Americans: paid $27 a month without board, 12 hours a day, whippings, Sundays off.
• Black Americans: ??

Little is known about the Black workers. It seems that some settled in Oakland, California shortly afterwards.

Chinese Americans: The Central Pacific made the Chinese work through the winter of 1866, one of the worst ever, and in the mountains! That spring the Chinese went on strike, demanding the same pay and conditions as Whites. The company, which controlled the food supply, got them to give in – but it did give them $2 more a month. In time they would get $30 a month. It was dangerous work: at least a thousand died, in landslides, snowslides, explosions, etc.

Chinese know-how: Some said the Central Pacific leg was impossible. And it might have been without Chinese know-how, not just in working with explosives, but in how to build things into the side of mountains. Many mountains do not come with a natural rail bed.

Glass ceiling: Despite all that, the management, from the foremen on up, was all White.

The Last Spike was driven by Leland Stanford on May 10th 1869 at Promontory, Utah, at a Whites-only ceremony. Look at the pictures!

Leland Stanford – well, he needs a post of his own. After the “dregs” of Asia, as he called them, built his railroad, he made a fortune and founded Stanford University.

Land: The government gave the companies miles of Native land on both sides of the rail lines. Before then, railroads followed behind White settlers. Now they led the way, placing ads in the eastern US and in Europe to draw in settlers.

The railroad also helped to spread the Ghost Dance, in the opposite direction, which in turn led to the showdown at Wounded Knee.

Central Pacific line in red, Union Pacific in blue.

US transcontinental rail lines in use as of 2011.

Today most of the Nevada and California line is still in use by Amtrak’s California Zephyr. Much of the rest is abandoned or was torn up for its steel for the Second World War.

The California Zephyr near Truckee, California, circa 2013. Via Yahoo.

An abandoned part of the Transcontinental Railroad near Brigham City, Utah, circa 2009. Via abandonedrails.com.

– Abagond, 2017.

Sources: mainly “The Chinese in America” (2003) by Iris Chang; “A Different Mirror” (2008) by Ronald Takaki; “A People’s History of the United States” (2003) by Howard Zinn.

See also:

• Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2017 – the completion of the railroad in May is part of why Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is in May.
• Leland Stanford
• Chinese Americans
  • Gold Mountain – the period just before this
  • Chinese Exclusion Act – of 1882.
• coolies – many of the Chinese workers were coolies, contract workers brought from China.
• Irish Americans
• Black Americans
• Native Americans
• Ghost Dance
• settler colonialism

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