The Transcontinental Railroad: Chinese Labor, Politics, and Promontory Summit

1,776 Miles of Track Built by Men Who Were Never Fully Counted

The First Transcontinental Railroad, completed on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, reduced transcontinental travel time from six months by wagon to seven days by train. The project employed approximately 20,000 workers at its peak, including an estimated 10,000–12,000 Chinese immigrant laborers working for the Central Pacific Railroad — men whose contributions were largely unacknowledged in the official celebrations and whose names appear almost nowhere in the contemporaneous photographic record. The railroad spanned 1,776 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Sacramento, California, and fundamentally reshaped the American economy, the settlement of the West, and the relationship between the federal government and private industry.

The Political Origins: Pacific Railroad Acts

The idea of a transcontinental railroad predated the Civil War by decades, but the secession of Southern states in 1861 broke the congressional deadlock over whether the route should be northern or southern. With Southern congressmen absent, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act on July 1, 1862, authorizing two companies to build the line: the Union Pacific, building westward from the Missouri River, and the Central Pacific, building eastward from Sacramento. The act granted both companies land — ultimately approximately 45 million acres in alternating checkerboard sections — and government bonds of $16,000 to $48,000 per mile depending on terrain difficulty.

• The bond subsidy was $16,000 per mile on flat terrain, $32,000 in the high plains, and $48,000 in mountainous terrain — creating incentives to classify terrain as mountain to claim higher rates
• The Pacific Railroad Act of 1864 doubled the land grants and allowed the companies to sell first-mortgage bonds, effectively doubling the financial incentives
• Credit Mobilier, the construction company controlled by Union Pacific investors, became the center of a major corruption scandal in 1872 when it was revealed that shares had been distributed to congressmen to forestall investigation

The Central Pacific: The Chinese Workforce

The Central Pacific, led by the Big Four (Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker), initially relied on Irish immigrant labor but faced chronic shortages in California's labor market. Charles Crocker began hiring Chinese workers in 1865, initially over protests from white workers who doubted their ability. The Chinese workers proved essential — willing to do dangerous work, disciplined in organization, and willing to work for lower wages than white laborers.

The most dangerous work — blasting through the Sierra Nevada — fell to Chinese workers. To bore the Summit Tunnel (1,659 feet through solid granite at 7,000 feet elevation), workers drilled by hand and packed nitroglycerin into bore holes. Chinese workers, drawing on mining and tunneling experience from their home provinces, pioneered the use of wicker baskets lowered on ropes over vertical cliff faces to drill and set charges. Despite these innovations, dozens died in explosions and avalanches during the winter of 1866–67, when workers lived and worked in tunnels dug through more than 40 feet of snow.

Summit Tunnel and the Race Across Nevada

The Central Pacific's progress through the Sierra Nevada averaged less than two feet per day at points. Once through the mountains and into Nevada's open desert terrain, the pace accelerated dramatically. Charles Crocker challenged his workforce to lay 10 miles of track in a single day — a feat widely considered impossible. On April 28, 1869, a hand-picked crew of 848 Chinese workers, supported by a large logistical train, laid 10 miles and 56 feet of track in 12 hours, a record that was never broken during the era of railroad construction.

Union Pacific: The Push West from Omaha

The Union Pacific, led by chief engineer Grenville Dodge and construction superintendents the Casement brothers, worked westward across the Great Plains and through the Rocky Mountains. Its workforce was dominated by Irish immigrants, Civil War veterans (both Union and Confederate), and formerly enslaved men. The Union Pacific's route crossed Sioux and Cheyenne territory, and Native American resistance — including raids on survey parties and work crews — was a recurring disruption. The U.S. Army provided escorts and engaged in military campaigns against tribes who opposed the railroad's advance through their hunting grounds.

• The Union Pacific covered approximately 1,085 miles; the Central Pacific covered approximately 690 miles
• The two companies' survey parties initially passed each other because neither had been assigned a meeting point — Congress eventually designated Promontory Summit, Utah
• Competitive speed created shoddy construction in some segments; both companies rushed through the final miles, and significant track had to be rebuilt within years of opening

The Golden Spike, May 10, 1869

At Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, on May 10, 1869, Leland Stanford drove a ceremonial golden spike connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific rail lines. The telegraph line carried the signal of each hammer blow to both coasts simultaneously; bells rang in San Francisco and New York City. The photograph taken by Andrew J. Russell — showing the two locomotives facing each other with celebrating workers — became one of the most reproduced images of 19th-century America. The Chinese workers who built the Central Pacific's share of the line were absent from the photograph and unmentioned in the ceremonial speeches. It was not until 2014 that California formally apologized for discriminatory laws targeting Chinese immigrants — the Chinese Exclusion Act had passed just 13 years after the golden spike ceremony.