Gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill, California by James Marshall, sparking the Gold Rush. By 1849, around 90,000 "forty-niners" moved to California to find gold!
CALIFORNIA BECOMES A STATE
California is officially admitted to the Union as the 31st state. It is a "free state" where slavery will be illegal.
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THEODORE JUDAH FINDS ROUTE
"I am going to California to be the pioneering railroad engineer of the Pacific coast!"
Theodore Judah was an engineer who believed in building a railroad to connect the eastern and western United States. He discovered the ideal route for the Pacific Railroad through the Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains. "Crazy Judah" was a central figure in the establishment of the railroad. He found investors for what became the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR).
PACIFIC RAILWAY ACT
"There is nothing more important before the nation than the building of the railroad to the Pacific."
President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act which authorized the Central Pacific Railroad Company to build a line of track from Sacramento and mandated the Union Pacific Railroad Company to build west from the Missouri River. No meeting point was set. The bill promised each company 6400 acres of land and $48,000 in government bonds for each mile built.
Pacific Railway Act
A. Lincoln
CENTRAL PACIFIC BEGINS
UNION PACIFIC BEGINS
The Central Pacific Railroad Company began work building the railroad from Sacramento eastward. On Oct. 26, 1863, it spiked its first rails to ties.
CHINESE WORKERS EMPLOYED ON CENTRAL PACIFIC
It is backbreaking work but I can slowly save for my family to join me and have a better life.
Union Pacific Railroad Company började arbeta bygga järnvägen från Omaha Nebraska västerut. Den 2 december 1863 höll företaget en banbrytande ceremoni i Omaha, Nebraska.
CPR began to employ people who were Chinese immigrants as laborers in addition to their predominantly Irish immigrant labor force. It is estimated that 12,000 Chinese immigrants and 10,000 Irish immigrants worked on the transcontinental railroad. Chinese people were paid less than people of European descent.
CIVIL War Veterans söka arbete på järnväg
It is backbreaking work but I can slowly save for my family to join me and have a better life.
After the Civil War ended, thousands of veterans headed west to seek work on the railroads. Many found work on the Union Pacific Railroad company along with many Irish immigrants.
GOLDEN SPIKE AT PROMONTORY POINT
Den 10 maj 1969 första transkontinentala järnvägen officiellt avslutat som Union Pacific linje från öst och Central Pacific linje från väster förenat sina 1.700 miles av spår. Representanter från båda företagen turades om att köra den sista gyllene spetsen i marken under en ceremoni vid Promontory Point i Utah.
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT
On May 6, 1882, the United States Congress passed the racist Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited any further immigration of people from China. This Act was particularly egregious in that it ignored the heroic and crucial role Chinese people played in the construction of the transcontinental railroad.
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