Click on each tab in succession to learn more about the problem and answer the questions that follow in your notes:The Transcontinental Railroad presented enormous challenges to both the Union Pacific and Central Pacific. No railroad project had ever been attempted as large as this road. The geography of the western United States added to the difficulty.
For example, the railroads needed wood for the tracks. The Union Pacific was building through the Great Plains where there were few trees, and those that existed were small. The railroad had to develop a network to carry wood to the track sites.
The Central Pacific suffered from the opposite problem. The massive redwood trees of California could be eight feet in diameter and 150 feet tall. They required up to ten barrels of gunpowder each to bring down, sending chunks of tree flying with every explosion.
In this section, you will analyze a specific geographical problem facing the Central Pacific—tunneling through the massive granite Sierra Nevada mountain range. You will gather information in part through reading excerpts from Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 by Stephen Ambrose (New York: Touchstone, 2000).
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The Transcontinental Railroad opened up the West for economic development through ingenious engineering and backbreaking labor, provided by Chinese immigrants on the Central Pacific and Irish immigrants on the Union Pacific. Unfortunately, both of these groups were victims of discrimination by the railroad companies, especially the Chinese. Despite risking their lives (at least 100 and maybe up to 1,000 Chinese died) and enduring terrible working conditions, the Chinese were paid substantially less than their white colleagues. When the railroad was finished, they were frequently kicked out of the towns they helped connect to the rest of America. After making some money on the railroads, many Chinese returned to their homeland. Of course, many stayed, helping to create the vibrant Asian-American communities that exist up and down the Pacific Coast and beyond.