Influence Of Chinese And Irish

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The Influence of Chinese and Irish Laborers on the Transcontinental Railroad
The Chinese and Irish laborers answered strongly when asked to help build the Transcontinental Railroad that connected the Pacific and the Atlantic Coasts. During the long process the immigrant workers encountered harsh weather and living and working conditions. Their work produced the Great Iron Trail in an incredibly short time with minimal resources and equipment. Their struggles are often overlooked and their overseers credited with the building of the railroad. The Chinese and Irish found what entertainment they could, often challenging each other to lay more track in one day than the other. Both found a hostile country in the management of the railroad companies and the U.S. government that rejected them from the work place and drove them to accept the poor conditions presented by the railroad positions. The two groups couldn’t have been more different, yet they came together to create a revolutionary railway and opened a new era in the United States. Their great influence may have made the completion of the transcontinental railroad possible.
The Chinese and Irish were drawn to the land of opportunity in order to become successful. They came from different ends of the world to end up at a common destination: California. The Chinese were dreamers when they came to California; they hoped to profit from the Gold Rush. They left a feudal system that restricted many aspects off their lives (Daley 14-15). The Irish had visions of a more stable future, coming to California in search of steady jobs (Potter 621). They left Ireland for America to escape the Great Potato famine.
Long before the Gold Rush of 1849, the Chinese had known about the wealth that lay in America, or “the Mountain of Gold” (Sung 1-4; Howard 225). Legend told of a place where the precious metal was bountiful. They dismissed this until a few daring men found wealth in America. Many were drawn to the prospect of easy money and by 1850 nearly 25,000 Chinese had immigrated to California (Sung 5; Daley 26-27). Some searched the deserted land claims for overlooked gold, while other Chinese were hired by successful gold miners as cooks, houseboys, gardeners, farmers, and laundrymen (Sung 10-11; Howard 224-226). Unfortunately th...

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...on May 10, 1869 with the ceremonial “Last Spike.” The true creators of the railroad were only credited once in a speech in the final blow ceremony. The Irish and Chinese had a huge impact on the transcontinental railroad, finishing it four years early and with perfection while overcoming a large number of obstacles with their ingenuity and hard work. Without these immigrant workers the project may never have been finished, or even started.

Bibliography
1) Potter, George. To The Golden Door: The story of the Irish in Ireland and America. Boston, Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1960
2) Johnson, Arthur M. and Supple, Barry E. Boston Capitalists and Western Railroads. Cambridge: Harvard U. P, 1967
3) Hogg, Gary. Union Pacific. New York: Walter and Company, 1967
4) Howard, Robert W. The Great Iron Trail: the story of the First Transcontinental Railroad. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1962
5) Sung, Betty L. The Chinese In America. New York: Macmillan Company, 1972
6) Watts, J.F. The Irish Americans. New York: Chelsea House P, 1988
7) Daley, William. The Chinese Americans. New York, Philadelphia: Chelsea House P, 1996
8) http://www.utah.com/places/public_lands/transcontinental.htm

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