Copyright 2019 by Gary L. Pullman
Active member of Western Writers of America
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The transcontinental railroad, stretching
1,776 miles, from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California, was
America's greatest 19th-century achievement. It revolutionized
communication, united the nation's eastern and western halves, and
expedited both transportation and commerce.
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What had been an arduous journey of four
to sixth months by stagecoach or a couple of months by ship,
requiring the crossing of Panama (there was no canal until 1914),
which offered the danger of contracting malaria, was cut to a mere
two weeks, and the cost of travel was reduced by 90 percent!1
However, to complete the railroad, both
the Pacific Central Railroad (PCRR), which built the railroad from
the San Francisco, California, eastward, and its partner and rival,
the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR), which built the railroad from the
Omaha, Nebraska, westward2,
had to overcome major obstacles. The terrain and weather were the PCRR's
major obstacles, while personnel were the UPRR's greatest impediment.
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To advance westward, a trestle or a bridge
had to be built for every river and gorge. To construct a bridge over
a river, workers used a steam-powered pile-driver, which drove posts
of wood into the bottom of the river to support the bridges.3
But the Sierra Nevada Mountains, between
California and northern Nevada, represented the greatest obstacle to
PCRR's engineers. Using black powder and hammers and chisels, Chinese
workers and others had to blast and carve ledges out of the sheer
cliffs and precipitous rock faces so track could be laid for trains.
Cape Horn is an example of the tremendous challenge these mountains
posed.4
Another impediment the PCRR had to
overcome was “a cemented gravel hill” in the Sierra Nevada
foothills near Bloomer Ranch. Engineer Theodore Judah's solution to
the problem was to cut a “wedge” through the hill.”5
The project, known as Bloomer's Cut, produced an 800-foot-long
channel that is 63-feet-deep at its greatest depth.6
In addition, the PCRR had to blast 15
tunnels through the mountains.7
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To blast the rock in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, workers on ropes
were lowered down cliffs. Dangling, they pounded sharpened rods of
iron into the rock with hammers, stuffed the holes with black powder,
set fuses, and shouted to be hauled up. Instead of ropes, Chinese
workers used reed baskets. The work was dangerous, resulting in many
workers' deaths.8
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The Summit Tunnel indicates the magnitude
of this requirement:
In the spring of 1868, the Sierra Nevada were finally
"conquered" by the Central Pacific Railroad . . . after
almost three years of sustained construction effort by mainly Chinese
laborers, with the successful completion at Donner Pass of its
1,659-foot. . . Tunnel #6 and associated grade, thus permitting the
establishment of commercial transportation en
masse of passengers and freight over the
Sierra for the first time. Following a route first surveyed and
proposed by CPRR's original Chief Engineer, Theodore D. Judah
(1826–1863), the construction of the four tunnels, several miles of
snowsheds and two Chinese Walls necessary to breach Donner Summit
constituted the most difficult engineering and construction challenge
of the original Sacramento-Ogden CPRR route.9
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Tunneling was a time-consuming and
dangerous undertaking. Workers averaged about one-foot of progress
per day by drilling and packing holes with black powder, connecting
and lighting fuses, and running from the tunnels. The replacement of
black powder with dynamite doubled the daily average obtained from
blasting. Even so, it took from August 1866 to November 1867 to
create the 1,500-foot Summit Tunnel.10
Blizzards caused avalanches, which often
destroyed trestles and killed workers. Snow sheds were built to
protect tracks and workers. Thirty-seven miles of snowsheds were
built from 1867 to 1869.11
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This tent city became Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Although the UPRR had a chronic shortage
of employees early on, this problem was largely solved by Irish
immigrants and Civil War veterans, both of whom needed work
desperately. After the U. S. government threatened to eliminate the
UPRR's funding in 1865 because of the company's lack or progress,
UPRR increased its speed, laying two to three miles of track each
day. Workers built way stations every 100 miles, giving rise, in many
cases to temporary towns providing saloons, dance halls, gambling
houses, and brothels in which workers could spend their money on
their Saturday nights off. Called a “Hell on Wheels,” such a town
often followed the tracks, moving as workers moved.12
However, a few of these towns became permanent cities, including
North Platte, Nebraska, Julesburg, Colorado, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and
Medicine Bow, Wyoming.13
Once the railroad got past the Sierra
Nevada Mountains and the Rocky Mountains, the employees' work was
easier—relatively easier, that is. But, as we'll see in the next
post, the greed and dishonesty of one of the railroad company's top
executive officer created other problems.
1The
Transcontinental Railroad by
Christine Zuchora-Walske
2Ibid.
3The
Golden Spike: How a Photographer Celebrated the Transcontinental
Railroad by Don Nardo.
4Ibid.
6The
Transcontinental Railroad by
John Perritano
7The
Transcontinental Railroad by
Christine Zuchora-Walske
8The
Incredible Transcontinental Railroad
by Conrad Stein.
9“Donner
Pass.” Wikipedia.
10Ibid.
11Ibid.
12Ibid.
13The
Incredible Transcontinental Railroad
by Conrad Stein.
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