The Central Pacific Railroad - Case Study Example

[School] Number] September 11, The Central Pacific Railroad The construction of the Central Pacific Railroad was initiated in 1861 by California big four merchants i.e. Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins. This was the first part of the now known transcontinental rail line of America. Theodore Dehone Judah was the engineer who surveyed and conceived this line after receiving financial support from the group at California big four and also had the support of the federal government guided by the Pacific Railway Act of 1863 that provides subsidies and land grants to both the Union and Central Pacific. (White, 1995) Most of the proposal in the 19th century to build a transcontinental rail failed due a lot times in the congress was wasted focusing on the disputes over slavery. The authorization for the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad was passed after the secession of the South hence the big four modernizers of the Republican Party now controlled the congress hence passing this motion with funding in form of government bonds which were to be repaid on interest. All the companies that were involved in the project were awarded financial support from the government and were awarded large parcels of land along the entire rail line route as an enticement. (Laughlin, 1996) Of all the California’s big four, Huntington was in charge in representing the company in the east and was also charged with handling all the purchasing and financing and also any matters related to politics. Stanford was the then California governor and this was key in seeking the company’s support both politically and financially in the west. Crocker was in charge of construction. During the initial construction, the California big four injected the own funds to sponsor the project but most of the funds for the actual construction later came from grants and government funds. The construction of these Central Pacific Railroad was important to the economy as it provides a safe and faster transportation of troops to war, mails, war ammunitions and public stores. (Evans, 2000) The Central Pacific which was the company that was in charge of the construction started the laying of the track eastward from California in 1863 with another company The Union Pacific starting westwards from Nebraska, two years later. This was a labour intensive project and therefore for the Central Pacific to meet its manpower needs, it hired thousands of Chinese laborers many of whom were hired from farms in Canton. This crew had a huge task of laying the track across the rugged landscape of Sierra Nevada mountain ranges hence had to blast tunnels to achieve this. The Unions Pacific’s crew were sourced from the immigrants from Ireland and the civil war veterans who had the task of enduring attacks from the Indians on the Rocky Mountains. The two rail lines i.e. one from east and another from west met at Promontory in 1869 after 2900KM of track covered. (Laughlin, 1996) As years went by, the feeder lines constructed by the Central Pacific were established through California by the help of a subsidiary company known as the Southern Pacific Company of California. This feeder line connected the already existing tracks on the south acquiring the Louisiana, Texas and New Orleans routes. The Southern Pacific Company of California was incorporated in 1884 and was responsible for the completion of various railroads under a lease from the Central Pacific until 1959 when they merged. (White, 1995) The Civilization The evolution and the latest spike on a great pioneer rail track across the continent was conceived in 1869. However, the first such mission was conceived in California in 1769. With the construction of the Central Pacific railroad, this signified an increase in levels of civilization and disappearance of the old California with the emergence of a new one and increased civilization. The history of California during this construction is characterized by three epochs. The pastoral age was due to the Spanish occupation and this was characterized by the sound of mission bells breaking the silence of the sunny empire. The silence always stirred the infrequent arrival in an environment characterized by hides and tallow of a sailing vessel. This era of the construction of the Pacific Railroad was characterized by hazard related to mining, the exhaustion of placers, the growth of businesses and populations, cultivation of soil and rearing of herds and flocks. (White, 1995) The Agrarian revolution came in with increase in agricultural activities hence land was possessed with beneficence of the climate. Initially only mining was considered important but with the advances in agriculture, farms were mapped and businesses were now based on other industries rather than these adventurous industries and also necessities of an organized society was very important. The bottom industry was agriculture and in the whole region, the civilization was built based on farming. The pastoral days would have never at any point constructed a rail way line since they didn’t need one while the mining industry would have only developed a secure local transportation but not a railroad across the continent. Therefore there was demand for such a line to provide rapid communication with the homes, industries in the east and also the supply of the necessities to the west. This civilized communities were now here to stay with businesses expanding, the region had also reach resources leading to an independent and prosperous community. Therefore, the development of a rapid and adequate means of transport was a necessity. (Laughlin, 1996) There was slow evolution in terms of enterprise and the communities started developing temples with statues, galleries of art and paintings, dramas and lyric poems and also reforms and material blossoming of ages. During the 1849, there were difficulties in terms of adventure due to the lack of a railway line. During this time, roads were used with horses and carriages being the most frequent. The roads during this times were giant highways normally a hundred feet wide and free of charge. The adoption of a rail road was considered was a more civilized mode of transport. (Laughlin, 1996) Also, the existing design of roads and bridges was not able to support the heavy loads that are characterized by trains. These structure also lacked the required flexibility when it comes to transverse acute curves and an absolute change in grade. Therefore, there was a need for a new form of transport that accommodate heavier locomotives and replace the other forms of transport i.e. horses and oxen that were dominant then. Therefore for the transcontinental railway, the bridges are designed to allow the trains to go up and down of hill in a high speed and also safely. There were advances in civilization during the construction of the rail road across the ranges of Sierra Nevada. The Sierra Nevada ranges has huge steep cliffs hence the track was raised so as to enable the railroad to pass through. The bed of the ranges had to be drilled from the granitic slopes with the laborers suspending ropes as they drilled and blasted the rocks above the American river. The iron trail was used to bore past storied mining camps with startling echoes of blasts of the panting iron-train. All these indicated the level of advanced civilization during the construction of the Pacific railroad. (White, 1995) The Labour force The construction of the Central Pacific Railroad would have taken much longer were it not for the Chinese laborers who played such a significant role in building the railroad. One of the big California four i.e. Charles W. Crocker, who was also known as the organizer and a construction genius, was the one responsible for the recruitment of these labors. He first recruited the Chinese in California and later in Canton province and then bringing them to California. This was a labour intensive project and therefore for the Central Pacific to meet its manpower needs, it hired thousands of Chinese laborers from the farms in Canton. This crew had a huge task of laying the track across the rugged landscape of Sierra Nevada mountain ranges hence had to blast tunnels to achieve this. The Unions Pacific’s crew were sourced from the immigrants from Ireland and the civil war veterans who had the task of enduring attacks from the Indians on the Rocky Mountains. (Doolittle, 2009) The Chinese immigrants in California were segregated into separate communities with separate jobs and were considered as unskilled labour. These chines were mainly imported as cooks, gardeners, houseboys and laundry men by the Chinese trading companies and their passage across the pacific was under indentured-servant plan. These Chinese trading companies normally located jobs for the immigrants and collected their salaries. Most of these salaries were used in repaying the passage across the pacific leaving them only $4-$8 a month However, the rail road construction paid close to $30 a month hence sounded lucrative for these Chinese laborers. The Chinese in California were greatly taken advantage of by the law. (Kraus, 2010) These Chinese laborers worked on the first arm of the Central Pacific railroad that was characterized with hot deserts and highest mountains. These Chinese immigrants not only did they build the western half of the Central Pacific railroad, they were also responsible for the construction of every feeder railroad lines in the West. However, there was a lot of discrimination of the Chinese immigrants from the white workers. The Chinese laborers were considered lazy, weak and unskilled and were also hated by the white Irish immigrants since they could do those jobs they were unable or refused to do. (Doolittle, 2009) A large portion of the Central Pacific railroad was built over a treacherous and steep terrain. This therefore necessitated for the boss in charge of the construction i.e. James Strobridge to oppose on the idea to hire the Chinese since he felt they were not strong enough to build a rail road. Another reason that could have made James Strobridge to oppose the hiring of Chinese works is because they were considered strangers and had different customs. However, it was later realized the progress of the construction of the railroad was going slowly. For instance, the construction of the Central Pacific started on 1861 and yet by 1865, only around 43KMs of track has been laid. (Doolittle, 2009) This was super-slow and was found to have been necessitated by lack of workmen who were responsible. Therefore, it was later decided that the Chinese men be hired and at first after hiring, they were give small and basic jobs since nobody trusted them. However, they were finally given the task of carrying out the grading of the rail head in order to lay the tracks. They were found to be better than the white workers hence were later hired for the main construction work of the Central Pacific railroad. It can be therefore be concluded that the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad was made possible by the Chinese immigrant workers. (Kraus, 2010) Tools, Methods and equipment used During the construction of the transcontinental Central Pacific Railroad, no new tools were invented. The standard construction techniques were applied with experimentation carried on with nitroglycerine. Some of the tools used include Fresno scrapers, picks, steam shovels, black powder and other usual construction tools. This tools were not invented during this time for the purpose of the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, they had been there for long since the Central Pacific Railroad was not the first rail road to be constructed. (Doolittle, 2009) By the early 1860s, there had been small and short railroads built on the eastern part of the United States of America. These roads were smaller and were built quickly since there wasn’t any much support from the federal government in terms of financing and legislation. These rail roads were constructed in very small segments and linked together under one common company in which they were operated. Also, the Ames family manufactured most of the tools used in its initial construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. (White, 1995) The construction of the Central Pacific Railroad was a task with an enormous scope and normally slow. This construction process is characterized by the constant pressure to finish the projects ahead of schedule and beat the geographical deadlines. During the construction, several methods had to be used to as to lay the rails over the rugged landscapes. These included cutting the grades, building snow sheds, blasting through hard granitic rocks and also laying the tracks even during the snowy season. For instance, to lay the track over the Sierras, huge rock cuts, high trestles, deep fills and switchback routes were required. (Doolittle, 2009)In addition to that, a huge amount of tools, materials and supplies were required so as to make the project successful. For instance, 1KM of rail track requires around 60 tons of rail, about three tons of spikes, 1200 ties and 1000 fish plates. Fish plates refer to the pieces of metals that join the rails are help in controlling expansion and contraction of the metal during different times of the weather. Other tools needed for this construction included horse drawn scrapers, wheelbarrows, shovels, two-wheel dump carts, crowbars, axes, rods of iron and tools for use in quarries. In addition to that, wheel trucks, locomotives, foundry tools and switch mechanisms were used as well. (Kraus, 2010) All the required materials, necessary machinery, rails and rolling stock were shipped from Cape Horn on the southern tip of South America to California. The river steamers were used to transport them through river Sacramento where they were loaded to platform cars for hauling up to the mountains. Hardships due to delay caused by the shipment being out of schedule or an accident occurring during shipping. This would result to contractors cutting corners, spiking only around seven of the required ten rails or allowing shoddy work to be done on the tracks so as to beat the deadlines. (White, 1995) Analysis The Central Pacific Railroad is the largest rail road in North America and covers around twenty three states across the western side of Northern America around two thirds if the United States. This is rail road is a very advantageous route since it covers the region served by the world’s fastest and critical markets. This rail network provides a well-balanced and mixture of diverse tracks hence making the Central Pacific Railroad a premier rail serve to all its customers in Northern America. Therefore, its ability to grow and serve a larger customer share and compete with other modes of transport is largely dependent on the quality of service being offered. (Kraus, 2010) Therefore the coming together of the California big four merchants i.e. Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, in 1861 was the major breakthrough in the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. This railroad has led to an improvement in terms of work forces consolidation and also provision of services and facilities that are key to the development of the economy and provide a better operation performance hence better returns to the shareholders. This therefore means that customers in North America can benefit from a civilization idea borne in the 19th century with new and expanded services. (Doolittle, 2009) The Central Pacific Railroad being the largest rail networks and transportation in North America has to pursuing and opening of new markets. It creates a very important route aimed at serving the emerging markets. Lastly, the Chinese laborers who were responsible for the construction of the major part of Central Pacific Railroad in hard geographical conditions, an alien environment characterized by segregation from white Irish workers and harsh environmental conditions should remembered. This is because they did the hardest jobs including blasting of hard granitic rocks, working day and night and many of them died so as to see the project completed. (Kraus, 2010) Works Cited Doolittle, John T. "CHINESE-AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TO TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD." First Transcontinental Railroad - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum, 29 Apr. 2009. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. Evans, Clark J. The Central Pacific Railroad. New York: Childrens Press, 2003. Print. Kraus , George. "Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Central Pacific." First Transcontinental Railroad - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. Laughlin, Rosemary. The Great Iron Link: The Building of the Central Pacific Railroad. Greensboro, N.C: Morgan Reynolds Inc., 1996. Print. White, Henry K. History of the Union Pacific Railway. Chicago, CA: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Print Read More