When was transcontinental railroad

Search this Guide Search. This Month in Business History. Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad Frank Beard. May 29, It is a story made up of a series of events and filled with a cast of people and companies that made it happen—here are just a few of note: One of the early and most prominent people making the case for a transcontinental railroad was Asa Whitney.

In he published his ideas on the idea of a railroad that began in Chicago and went to California. There were many others who also joined the chorus.

He undertook a survey to find a manageable route through the high and rugged Sierra Nevada and in presented his plan to Congress. Print Resources The following materials link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. B24 Table of contents A history of the transcontinental railroad. Includes extensive Notes and Bibliography sections. One of the earliest and most notable examples making the case for an overland route. Available online from Hathi Trust External This report was required by an act passed in March to investigate the railroads that built the railroad.

It includes a history of the construction. Available online from Hathi Trust External incomplete set This twelve volume set done in preparation for the construction of the railroad examines different possible routes and also includes botany and zoological surveys. Pacific railroad and telegraph by United States Congress. Call Number: HE I A3. A report by Congress on the necessity to connect the east and west coast with a railroad and telegraph lines as a way to maintain the US position on the Pacific coast, particularly in light of the discovery of gold.

Library of Congress Digital Resources The following resources created or digitized by the Library of Congress can be used to find out more about the railroad as well as the events of the day. Digitized Image Collections Library of Congress If there's a specific image collection on the topic, use that. Soon after the completion of the railroad, Durant's corrupt business schemes became a public scandal with Congress investigating not only Durant, but also fellow Senators and Representatives who had benefited from his shady dealings.

The Central Pacific's Big Four formed their corporation with a similar arrangement, awarding the construction and supplies contract to one of their own, Charles Crocker, who, for the sake of appearances, resigned from the railroad's board. However, the Big Four owned an interest in Crocker's company and each of them profited from the contract.

The race between the two companies commenced when the Union Pacific finally began to lay tracks at Omaha, Nebraska, in July A bridge over the Missouri River would be built later to join Omaha to Council Bluffs, the official eastern terminus. With tens of thousands of Civil War veterans out of work, hiring for the Union Pacific was easy. The men, mostly Irishmen, worked hard and well, despite going on strike occasionally when Durant withheld their pay over petty labor disputes.

Finding workers was a more difficult task for the Central Pacific. Laborers, mainly Irish immigrants, were hired in New York and Boston and shipped out west at great expense. But many of them abandoned railroad work, lured by the Nevada silver mines. In desperation, Crocker tried to hire newly freed African Americans, immigrants from Mexico, and even petitioned Congress to send 5, Confederate Civil War prisoners, but to no avail.

Frustrated at the lack of manpower necessary to support the railroad, Crocker suggested to his work boss, James Strobridge , that they hire Chinese laborers. Although Strobridge was initially against the idea, feeling that the Chinese were too slight in stature for the demanding job, he agreed to hire 50 men on a trial basis. After only one month, Strobridge grudgingly admitted that the Chinese were conscientious, sober, and hard workers.

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. Its name has since lent heft to an annual alumni recognition called the Gold Spike Award.

In addition, the Gov. The Gov. Stanford locomotive, brought to campus in , in the s went to the California State Railroad Museum, where it is on prominent display. Jones said the Gov. Stanford locomotive was moved to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento in the s, where it is available for public viewing.

But the legacy of the Big Four has not faded. Oddly, all of their family lines eventually died out. Much of their remaining fortunes were invested in philanthropic gifts. The scholarly project, headed by Gordan Chang , the Olive H. Atha Professor in Humanities, recovered and reinterpreted the history of the Chinese railroad workers chiefly responsible for the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

More than scholars in North America and Asia joined efforts to tell a story that had largely gone untold for more than a century. The project has revealed that the Chinese workers, many of whom subsequently went to build the Canadian Pacific Railroad, lived much more complicated lives and had much more complex social networks than previous research suggests.

In the immediate years after the railroad construction, their work was highly praised until anti-Chinese sentiment and fear of immigrants led to the Exclusionary Act of Another Stanford program associated with the th anniversary of the First Transcontinental Railroad is a film series , sponsored by the Stanford Historical Society, the Bill Lane Center for the American West and Stanford Continuing Studies, that explores the story through the eyes of Hollywood.

Historian David Kennedy will speak. On May 10, there will be a train and railroad open house at Special Collections in Green Library from 11 a. In addition, the David Rumsey Map Center presented a pop-up exhibition of the maps created by railroad engineer Theodore Judah.

The maps, on loan from the California State Archives, measure 2. The Stanford Libraries also is offering online an array of materials related to the anniversary and, in particular, to the Chinese railroad workers. Included in the collection are Alfred A. Hart photographs commissioned by Leland Stanford, railroad maps from the David Rumsey Map Center and oral histories of Chinese railroad worker families. The performance will take place in Bing Concert Hall on Nov.