USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In early 1865 the Central Pacific had work enough for 4, 000 men. Yet contractor Charles Crocker barely managed to hold onto 800 laborers at any given time. Most of the early workers were Irish immigrants.

Detailed explanation-2: -Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific, former California governor and founder of Stanford University, told Congress in 1865, that the majority of the railroad labor force were Chinese.

Detailed explanation-3: -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-4: -Most of the immigrants who built the Union Pacific railroad were from Ireland. The land that was crossed by the Union Pacific was always flat and easily traversed. At one point the crews were so fast, they completed 10 miles of track in one day.

Detailed explanation-5: -The rail line, also called the Great Transcontinental Railroad and later the “Overland Route, ” was predominantly built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California (CPRR) and Union Pacific (with some contribution by the Western Pacific Railroad Company) over public lands provided by extensive US land grants.