USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -One of the groups that literally took on the brunt of the work, were the Chinese laborers. Most of the Chinese workers, who numbered over 11, 000 by the end of the project, were employed by the Central Pacific Railroad building out of Sacramento, California. The use of Chinese labor started as an experiment.

Detailed explanation-2: -The major groups of immigrants that worked on the transcontinental railroad were from Ireland and China.

Detailed explanation-3: -17, 000 Chinese Railway Workers Between 1881 and 1885, over 17, 000 Chinese men came to Canada to work as labourers on the construction of the western section of the transcontinental railroad. Chinese workers were mostly concentrated on a 250-mile section in British Columbia contracted out to Andrew Onderdonk.

Detailed explanation-4: -Beginning in 1863, the Union Pacific, employing more than 8, 000 Irish, German, and Italian immigrants, built west from Omaha, Nebraska; the Central Pacific, whose workforce included over 10, 000 Chinese laborers, built eastward from Sacramento, California.

Detailed explanation-5: -Reducing the time it took to cross the continent from months to days, the railroad helped pave the way for Western migration. Often left out of the storytelling about the effort is the labor of an estimated 15, 000 to 20, 000 Chinese migrants who laid the tracks of the western half of the railroad.