American
Immigration
Chinese-Americans and the Transcontinel Railroad
Chinese labor was suggested, as they had already helped build the California Central Railroad, the railroad from Sacramento to Marysville and the San Jose Railway. Originally thought to be too small to complete such a momentous task, Charles Crocker of Central Pacific pointed out, "the Chinese made the Great Wall, didn't they?"
The first Chinese were hired in 1865 [sic] at approximately $28 per month to do the very dangerous work of blasting and laying ties over the treacherous terrain of the high Sierras. They lived in simply dwellings and cooked their own meals, often consisting of fish, dried oysters and fruit, mushrooms and seaweed.
Without the efforts of the Chinese workers in the building of America's railroads, our development and progress as a nation would have been delayed by years. Their toil in severe weather, cruel working conditions and for meager wages cannot be under appreciated. My sentiments and thanks go out to the entire Chinese-American community for its ancestors' contribution to the building of this great Nation. Our nation became more open for people around the world, we were able to deliver items and transport goods across the whole nation, we also made more towns which eventually became modernized into cities that were known worldwide. The Transcontinental Railroad is one of the most impacting things to happen to America and we owe most of it to the hard-working Chinese-Americans and other imiigrants who made it all possible and risked their lives for the making of the railroad.
"Wherever we put them, we found them good, and they worked themselves into our favor to such an extent that if we found we were in a hurry for a job of work, it was better to put Chinese on at once." —Charles Crocker