my assigned blog is over the railroad.
-in 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies
-it linked the railroad from the east to the west.
-the two companys "raced" towards eachother for the next 7 years.
-they met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.
-americas first steam locomotive made its debut in 1830
-settlers began to move west across the US that movement became a lot more popular as gold was discovered in California.
-the journey was very rough and took nearly 6 months to complete.
- they risked getting many diseases on this journey. like yellow fever.
-Theodore Judah identified the Donner Pass in northern California.
-Donner pass was where a group of westward emigrants had become trapped in 1846
-each company recieved 6,400 acres of land
-later it doubled to 12,800 acres
-they also got $48,000 in government bonds for every mile of track built
-the central pacific was dominated by the "big four"-Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington and Mark Hopkins
- the big four men had never worked with the railroad or construction, they were all businessmen. they just borrowed a lot of money.
- in Omaha Dr. Thomas Durant had illegally achieved a controlling interest in the Union Pacific Railroad Company. giving him complete control over the project.
-Durant also illegally set up a company called Crédit Mobilier, which guaranteed him and other investors risk-free profits from the railroad's construction
-Ramshackle settlements popped up wherever the railroad went, turning into hotbeds of drinking, gambling, prostitution and violence and producing the enduring mythology of the "Wild West."
-in 1865, after trouble getting and keeping workers for the railroad charles crocker who was in charge of the central pacific started hiring Chinese laborers.
-in 1865 50,000 chinese immigrants were living on the west coast.
-Chinese were considered an inferior race due to pervasive racism
-the chinese laborers proved to be tireless and crocker hired more of them.
-by early 1867 about 14,000 were working in brutal working conditions in the sierra Nevada.
-to blast through the mountains the central pacific used gunpowder and nitroglycerine to make tunnels.
Comments