10,000 Chinese Workers Built the Railroad — Transcontinental Railroad (1869)
May 1869. The railroad connecting America's East and West was complete. 10,000 Chinese laborers had laid 3,000 kilometers of track. They were not invited to the ceremony where a golden spike was driven.
Two Companies
- The U.S. government gave orders to two railroad companies.
Central Pacific: start in California, build east. Union Pacific: start in Nebraska, build west.
Meet somewhere in the middle. The government would give land and money — the more track laid, the more received.
The race was on.
Ten Thousand Men
Central Pacific had a labor problem.
White workers kept leaving for the gold mines. Nobody was left.
Try Chinese workers. There was resistance at first. "They're too small and weak."
They hired 50 as a trial. A month later, the foreman reported: "Better than the whites."
Eventually, 10,000 Chinese laborers were on the payroll.
The Sierra Nevada
The hardest section.
Minus 30-degree winters. Avalanches. Vertical cliffs.
Chinese workers were lowered down cliff faces in wicker baskets, drilling holes for dynamite by hand. They'd light the fuse and be hauled up before the blast.
Progress some days: a few centimeters.
The Golden Spike
May 10, 1869. Promontory Summit, Utah.
Two locomotives faced each other. The last tie was laid.
A golden spike was driven into the final joint. The telegraph signal went out across the nation. America celebrated.
A photograph was taken — executives, politicians, military officers.
The Chinese workers were not in it.
Afterward
Hundreds of Chinese workers died during construction. The exact number was never recorded.
What they received after completion: low wages and a boat ticket home.
In 1882, the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Completed: May 10, 1869 | Total length: ~3,000 km | Chinese workers: ~10,000 | Construction: 6 years
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