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Central Pacific sent out an ad asking for help building the railroad. Only 800 white men come for the job.
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To please the Racist Sentiments of the state, Leland Stanford called Chinese the "dregs" of Asia and degraded people. His tune quickly changed after he learned of how good of workers they were.
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Abraham Lincoln and Congress decied to pass the legislation to finance the Transcontinental Railroad. The Central Pacific starts in Sacramento, California and goes east. The Union Pacific started in Omaha, Nebraska and worked west.
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White men demanded higher pay and threatened to go on strike so Charles Crocker told Stobridge to recruit Chinese. It was succesful.
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The Central Pacific hires the first 50 Chinese who excel at their jobs.
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Crews spent weeks shoveling thirty-two foot drifts that prevented any progress.
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Men start rotating shifts that go around the clock to chip through the layers of solid stone.
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The "Homeric Winter" dropped about 40 feet of snow and drifts of 80 feet on the crews and remains one of the most brutal winters to date.
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The Dutch Flat Enquirer wrote an article about four or five Chinese that were killed in an avalanche.
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The Chinese peacefully went on strike because of the working demands and little pay. It only lasted one week because Charles Crocker cut off all food supplies so they could not survive. They did however receive a pay raise.
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Collis Huntington writes letter to Charlie Crocker asking to have half a million Chinese come to the U.S for labor.
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The Railroad was finished on this day at Promontory Point in Utah. A golden spike was put in as a celebration
