The Expansion of American Industry: Transcontinental Railroad

Essay by eastside914High School, 11th grade August 2008

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In May 10, 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was completed when the rails of the Union Pacific, which reached Omaha, Nebraska and those of the Central Pacific, which reached Sacramento, California were joined. When it was totally completed, a telegraph sent signals stating “Done”. The purpose of the transcontinental railroad was to “shrink the continent and change the whole world”. This was proposed by the men of imagination in 1830. However, it wasn’t until 1862 when the congress passed a bill authorizing the big dream.

The accomplishment of the transcontinental railroad required such hard working labor. Thus, the Central Pacific hired thousands of Chinese laborers and many farm workers from Canton to work on the railroads. When these laborers were laying the tracks on California’s rugged Sierra Nevada mountain range, they had to blast the mountains to build tunnels; the laborers blasted fifteen tunnels to accomplish their goal. The Americans admired the Chinese laborers because the Chinese did work that the whites could not do such as hanging from ropes, drilling holes in the cliff, and placing the fuses.

Plus, Chinese laborers worked faster and more efficiently than those of the White laborers. The laborers of the Union Pacific consisted many of the Irish immigrants and some of the Civil War veterans. However, these laborers had disputes with the Native Indians. On May 10, 1869, when the transcontinental railroad was finished, the two rail lines met at Promontory Summit, Utah. The whole railroad contained 1776 miles of new track.

Lewis Metzler Clement was the first Assistant Chief Engineer. He later became the Acting Chief Engineer and also the Chief of Locating Engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad. As second in command of the transcontinental railroad project, Clement was in charge of locating and constructing the transcontinental railroad throughout California’s...