This post is in honor of the little guys.  Not the Big Four of the CPRR, not the investors of the UPRR, not the Congressmen and dignitaries who supported the whole Transcontinental Railroad project.  Just the crewmen who connected an entire nation, coast to coast.

I want to begin this photo essay, however, with an acknowledgement.  The native tribes of America were deeply impacted by the coming of the railroad.  Their way of life was forever altered.  No summary of the TCRR would be complete without them, and I want to honor that first.

Native American viewing railroad from top of Palisades, circa 1865-69, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.  Cropped and enhanced by The Novel Historian, 2019.

Tens of thousands of people worked on the Transcontinental Railroad.  The Central Pacific line alone employed over 10,000 people at a time, and that doesn’t account for the high turnover in personnel. 

Crewmen at the end of the track on the Humboldt Plain, circa 1865-1869, Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.

Labor during the Civil War was in short supply, in the West as well as in the East.  The Union Pacific solved that by hiring Irish immigrants.  After the war, they also hired army veterans.  The Central Pacific, having direct sea access to China by way of San Francisco, hired Chinese laborers. 

Left: Chinese crewman outside the east portal of Tunnel #8, circa 1865-69, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.  Right: Chinese crewman with snow plow, circa 1865-1869, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.  Cropped and colorized 2019 by The Novel Historian.

Much has been said about the discrimination Chinese labor faced among the white population, but the railroad viewed them as hard-working employees.  Charles Crocker, testifying before Congress in 1877, said, “We have treated them like men, and they have treated us like men, and they are men, good and true men.”  (The entire report will reveal attitudes by the Congressmen that were not as favorable, by the way.  The U.S. has come a long way in 100-plus years.)

Chinese crewmen on the rocks outside the Summit Tunnel, drills in hand, circa 1865-69, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.

When the last rail was laid and the Golden Spike ceremony was over, Central Pacific Construction Boss James Strobridge hosted a dinner party in his rail car.  He invited a Chinese labor crew as his personal guests to the party, and they were greeted with cheers for a job well done. 

Railroad crewmen building wall to shore up the ravine outside Tunnel #10, circa 1865-69, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.

The crews on the railroad did extremely dangerous work.  Many died in the process.  And we in modern America still owe them a debt of gratitude for the feat of engineering and endurance they pulled off.

Railroad crewmen constructing snow cover near the Summit, circa 1865-69, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.

All of those crewmen needed a place to live in the wilderness.  Much has been made of the “Hell on Wheels” towns that sprang up around the end of the tracks.  Those were more interested in parting the men from their wages than they were in taking care of their needs.  Their needs were provided by the rail companies, in the form of tent cities and dormitory cars.  The Union Pacific dorms described in The Journal of Sean Sullivan (William Durbin, 1999) had two levels of sleeping quarters in each car.

Dormitory cars on the track in Nevada, circa 1865-69, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.
Camp at end of track, near Humboldt Lake, circa 1865-69, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.
Railroad building on the great plains, drawn by A.R. Waud, published in Harper’s Weekly, 1875, Library of Congress.

Note:  The historic photos by Alfred A. Hart were stereographic prints.  They have been cropped to highlight the content for modern audiences.

Featured image credit: Crewman riding atop train on Cement Ridge, circa 1865-69, by Alfred A. Hart, Library of Congress.  Cropped and colorized by The Novel Historian, 2019.

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You can get a tourist’s-eye-view of the TCRR in the middle chapters of my novel, Transcontinental Runaway, available on Amazon Kindle.