The Experiment

Reluctantly Central Pacific's construction boss, James Strobridge, agreed to go along with Charlie Crocker's idea of using Chinese workmen to build the railroad through the tough mountain terrain.  With their trademark baggy blue pants and long pigtails, they were met by laughter, insult and curses from the white workers - just as Strobridge had predicted.  The Chinese, however, paid no attention.  They went to work with picks and shovels and a will that amazed all who watched.

Strobridge was so impressed he hired 50 more Chinese, then exhausting the supply in California, he sent for 1000 workers from China itself.  They worked from dawn to dusk through all kinds of weather.  They were disciplined, sober, and fearless...so fearless that even when avalanches took then, the survivors worked even harder to make up the difference!

Labor wasn't the only problem facing the Central Pacific's early days.  Supplies were constantly scarce.  There was little industry in California at that time, and almost every supply needed to build a railroad had to be shipped from the East, either through Panama or around Cape Horn.  Rails that cost $92 in the East would cost $141 by the time they got to San Francisco.  Some materials were not even available at any price.

Despite all this, Crocker and his crews persevered.  Only eight miles of track was laid between September 1865 and May of 1866 before the Chinese came to work.  In the six months after their arrival, 28 miles of Sierra Nevada track was laid.  The following year, 1867, during  a year of blizzards, 15 miles were blasted through the mountains. 

By 1868 the railroad was down the eastern slopes to the desert below.  The government subsidies and grants were being awarded and the Central Pacific was racing to meet the Union Pacific.  By the early spring of 1869 the Central Pacific was across Nevada and into Utah.  The two railroads were drawing near to joining each other.

Next time...the final spike
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Today in Pioneer History: "On May 14, 1804, One year after the United States doubled its territory with the  Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition leaves St. Louis, Missouri, on a mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

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