Transcontinental railroad

The transcontinental railroad was built to make traveling pleasant and smooth, transport goods to the west faster, transports raw materials back to the east faster, and it transports people to the west easier. The railroads also made it safer to travel. The building of the transcontinental railroad was one of the most brilliant transportation ideas in history, and was thought of long before it was built. It cost about $150,000 for the land to be surveyed, and the tracks for the railroad started to get laid out in 1863 in Omaha. The railroad was off to a rather slow start due to lack of funds and the Civil War was still going on, so progress didn't start picking up until 1866. The Civil War had a lot to do with the placement of the tracks. The Northerners wanted a different route than the Southerners because of slavery. The West was new to the U.S. and congress couldn't decide if slavery was allowed in there yet. There were four major people in the building of this railroad, and they are: Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins. Stanford had been given lots of credit for starting to build the railroad. A corporation named the Central Pacific Railroad Co., became organized by Theodore Judah with Stanford as president, Huntington as vice-president, Hopkins as treasurer, and Crocker was a leader in the working process. Now Crocker decided to go and hire some Chinese immigrants to work on the railroad since all the whites were going to look for silver. By May 10th, 1869, over 11,000 of his workers were Chinese. The Chinese faced a lot of discrimination, they weren't allowed to become citizens or vote, and they often worked, and I am not kidding, 24/7. They had to hang from baskets on the sides of mountains and blow put the rock with dynamite so they could lay track. Working in the desert was no better. The weather was extremely hot, and they had no shade. The work was dangerous, but no lives were lost. Most of the men suffered internal bleeding in there lungs from alkali. The whites were paid $35 a month, had tools supplied. The Chinese got $25 per month and paid for their own tools. But they stayed dedicated, and that played a huge part in the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.