Today is the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad...

BackroadJunkie

At 12:47PM on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit in Utah, the final spike was driven on the Transcontinental Railroad, one of the most transformative events in American History.

Crossing the country was possible now in 5 days, rather than the 6 months by wagon or ship.

Golden Spike National Historic Site, Utah

Post a train!

yosclimber

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spike

Zoins

I was looking for information on the Trans-Continental Railroad to post and ran across the following article that refers to Chinese immigrants being 90% of the workforce that built the railroad from California to Utah according to a Stanford University professor. I never learned it was this many Chinese in my American History classes. A number of the Chinese immigrants that worked on the railroad first came to the US to mine gold during the California Gold Rush.

Descendants ensure Chinese rail workers, including in Utah, aren't forgotten

• https://kutv.com/news/local/descendants-ensure-chinese-rail-workers-including-in-utah-arent-forgotten
• https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/article230203674.html

The 20,000 Chinese immigrants who worked on the Central Pacific portion, from California to Utah, between 1864 and 1869 accounted for about 90% of that railroad's workforce, said Stanford University professor Gordon Chang. Other groups including the Irish, members of The Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and former slaves navigating Reconstruction also helped work on the entire railroad.

Chinese laborers were often the most exploited. They contended with racism, pay disparity and dangerous tasks in grueling terrain. At an elevation as high as 7,000 feet (2,133 meters) on the Sierra Nevada range, they were ordered to blast through solid granite using nitroglycerine. Some suffered brutal deaths in explosions. Avalanches also took lives.

"Their bodies weren't recovered till next spring. Sometimes they would be uncovered as the snow melted with their work tools still in their hands," Chang said.

There is no definitive data on the death toll among Chinese workers. While some reports back then suggest about 150 died, Chang believes deaths numbered in the hundreds. In his book, "Ghosts of Gold Mountain," he points to newspaper articles that mention the shipping of remains or "bone boxes" to China and Chinese groups in America keeping their own census records.

Here's a photo from the article.

A Google search for "bone box" turned up the following article:

A new art exhibit traces the journey of bone boxes throughout the Chinese diaspora

• https://www.kalw.org/post/new-art-exhibit-traces-journey-bone-boxes-throughout-chinese-diaspora

In the late 1800s, Chinese laborers living in the Bay Area often arranged to have their recovered bones sent in “bone boxes” back to China.

These bone boxes often had a layover in Hong Kong, where they were kept in Tung Wah Hospital’s Coffin Home. The hospital advertised in local Chinese newspapers, alerting families to come get their loved one’s remains. Some of them made it back home to their villages, and others stayed put.

“They still hold about 200 bone boxes that have been there some for almost 200 years that have been stuck in transit,” says Summer. “They are literally holding a bunch of bone boxes that are still questioning, ‘Will I go home.’ And the truth is that the bone boxes will never go home.”

I just picked up a J.J. Diehl Undertaker Civil War Token with a coffin on it. I wonder if any tokens exist for Tung Wah Hospitals's bone box service.

This photo shows that a bone box is much more compact than a coffin.

Two books on this by Gordon Chang, the Stanford professor mentioned above, are:

Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad

• https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Gold-Mountain-Transcontinental-Railroad-ebook/dp/B07FKDLFP5/

The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad

• https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Iron-Road-Building-Transcontinental/dp/1503609243/

illini420

OPA

Refurbished gigantic 'Big Boy' locomotive fires up crowds in the West
It's headed to Utah for Transcontinental Railroad's 150th anniversary

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/05/09/refurbished-big-boy-locomotive-fires-up-crowds-in-the-west/

BackroadJunkie

@Zoins said:
I was looking for information on the Trans-Continental Railroad to post and ran across the following article that refers to Chinese immigrants being 90% of the workforce that built the railroad from California to Utah according to a Stanford University professor. I never learned it was this many Chinese in my American History classes. A number of the Chinese immigrants that worked on the railroad first came to the US to mine gold during the California Gold Rush.

The best book I've read on the building of the Transcontinental Railroad is Nothing Like It In The World, by Stephen E. Ambrose. It's an excellent read, if a bit long.

It was far easier to hire the Chinese who worked in gangs, since they only had to deal with the leader rather than individuals.

Of course, with the import of so many Chinese to do the work (plus the work ethic the Chinese had), it eventually lead to the 1882 Chinese Exclusionary Act.

Want to read about a raw deal, the Exclusionary Act was it...

topstuf

Hell on Wheels .....Netflix

BackroadJunkie

@topstuf said:
Hell on Wheels .....Netflix

Never saw this. Any good?

I assume it's a bit like Deadwood? (AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE MOVIE!!!!) Somewhat based on historical people and events, but a fictional series?

EagleEye

I read the Stephen Ambrose book and watched Hell on Wheels. Both were excellent. The series, Hell on Wheels was loosely based on real events, mostly on the exploits of Doc. Durant. The main character was a Confederate who was escaping Eastern justice for murder. He seemed to be everywhere something was happening. He even developed a friendship with then-President hopeful, General Grant during the episodes that mirrored events of 1868.

It is amazing to think of the Central Pacific's challenges. Building from Sacramento through the Sierra Nevada, they had to ship all the rails, trains and supplies though Panama. And then cut a path though the mountains. The Union Pacific had to deal with the vast expanse of open prairie. The challenges were immense.

topstuf

@BackroadJunkie said:

@topstuf said:
Hell on Wheels .....Netflix

Never saw this. Any good?

I assume it's a bit like Deadwood? (AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE MOVIE!!!!) Somewhat based on historical people and events, but a fictional series?

Highly watchable. Historically....well.... But it's a good western if you like that.

Kkathyl

You would think that by now some political figure would have used this as an opportunity to Rally the countries into the post war era of Love and Bring the loved ones home to bury in a national memorial. Great write up.

Kkathyl

@OPA said:
Refurbished gigantic 'Big Boy' locomotive fires up crowds in the West
It's headed to Utah for Transcontinental Railroad's 150th anniversary

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/05/09/refurbished-big-boy-locomotive-fires-up-crowds-in-the-west/

Love the history here. I used to live in NY and we had a few diners made out of the train cars. One I used
to go to as a child was called Bob's Diner located in middle of Brewster,NY (home town of Marlo Thomas aka That girl).

bigtime36

If you have not seen Hell on Wheels... binge it!!! Its a great show, and cant wait for Deadwood the movie either. The series should have been longer!

CaptHenway

@BackroadJunkie said:
At 12:47PM on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit in Utah, the final spike was driven on the Transcontinental Railroad, one of the most transformative events in American History.

Crossing the country was possible now in 5 days, rather than the 6 months by wagon or ship.

Well, the six months trip by boat around Cape Horn was long gone thanks to the Panama railroad and ships like the Central America.

One interesting thing I got from "Nothing Like It In The World" was that as the two railroads grew closer together you could travel westward from Omaha to the end of the line and catch a stagecoach there to the eastern end of the other line. Still took a while, but it was a way for the railroads to sell tickets.

ricko

The exploration, development, settling and growth of the United States is one of the world's great stories...Railroads were an important part of this story, and in Europe too.... Even today, the railroads are a critical part of commerce. Cheers, RickO

Kudbegud

As @illini420 posted above, there is a medal commemorating the joining of the East and West portions. Shown on the Twitter post a little while ago.

@usmint 47m minutes ago
The U.S. Mint commemorated the completion of the Transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, with the Pacific Railroad medal. The artistry is the work of engraver William Barber, who created the dies for both the reverse (pictured here) and obverse.

Listed as a So-Called Dollar HK12, 12a & 12b
https://so-calleddollars.com/Events/Pacific_Railway_Completion.html

Zoins

@ricko said:
The exploration, development, settling and growth of the United States is one of the world's great stories...Railroads were an important part of this story, and in Europe too.... Even today, the railroads are a critical part of commerce. Cheers, RickO

The Transcontinental Railroad was an amazing accomplishment. Even the Erie Canal and the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System were / are great innovations.

One of the sobering things about all these accomplishments is that the US was a pioneer then, but today, other countries have much faster and more modern railroads than the US. California just cancelled the high speed rail system to connect San Francisco to LA. Hopefully, the US will see more innovation soon. I'm excited to see Elon Musk's family of companies drive the US into the future with the Boring Company, Space X and Tesla.

We should be creating medals to celebrate our new innovations. I was thinking about commissioning a medal for the 10th anniversary of the iPhone a while back

ricko

@Zoins... I agree, while the U.S. was pioneering in many areas of major accomplishments, now the innovation seems to be mainly technological - i.e. software, systems and micro-electronics. Meanwhile, our infrastructure is aging, and not well. Cheers, RickO

BackroadJunkie

@Zoins said:
We should be creating medals for new innovations. I was thinking about commissioning a medal for the 10th anniversary of the iPhone a while back

If you haven't been paying attention, there's a 56-coin series of Innobucks coming your way...

Urg.

BackroadJunkie

@Kudbegud said:
Listed as a So-Called Dollar HK12, 12a & 12b
https://so-calleddollars.com/Events/Pacific_Railway_Completion.html

I'm getting a misconfiguration error. Expired certificate?

Zoins

@BackroadJunkie said:

@Zoins said:
We should be creating medals for new innovations. I was thinking about commissioning a medal for the 10th anniversary of the iPhone a while back

If you haven't been paying attention, there's a 56-coin series of Innobucks coming your way...

Urg.

Those celebrate events that are way too old for what I'm thinking of. The Delaware dollar is highlighting and event from 1843 while the Pennsylvania dollar is highlighting an event from 1953. New Jersey is highlighting the Edison lightbulb at the turn of the 20th century and Georgia wins by highlighting an invention from the 1730s, before the US was a country.

The US Mint President Grant / "Every Mountain Shall Be Made Low" medal by Barber was issued in 1869, the same year the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. In the past, the US used to be amazed by all the innovation that was being created every year. Now, it seems we're less amazed with what we're doing now than what we did in the past.

Goldminers

Philadelphia Mint 100th Anniversary silver medal designed by Frank Gasparro 4.76 ounces.

Kudbegud

@BackroadJunkie said:

@Kudbegud said:
Listed as a So-Called Dollar HK12, 12a & 12b
https://so-calleddollars.com/Events/Pacific_Railway_Completion.html

I'm getting a misconfiguration error. Expired certificate?

I got that too but know this site well and it is not a threat....just an expired httpS certificate. I looked but can't find a way to alert them. No email shown. I clicked to continue anyway and got the page in my link.

If anybody knows how to contact them please do or post it here or in a PM.

Hemispherical

@Kudbegud said:

@BackroadJunkie said:

@Kudbegud said:
Listed as a So-Called Dollar HK12, 12a & 12b
https://so-calleddollars.com/Events/Pacific_Railway_Completion.html

I'm getting a misconfiguration error. Expired certificate?

I got that too but know this site well and it is not a threat....just an expired httpS certificate. I looked but can't find a way to alert them. No email shown. I clicked to continue anyway and got the page in my link.

If anybody knows how to contact them please do or post it here or in a PM.

At the bottom of the so-called dollar webpage:

“This site is supported by the publisher and copyright holder of So-Called Dollars by Hibler and Kappen, The Coin & Currency Institute.”

The link in the above text goes to:

http://www.coin-currency.com/

Snapshot of the webpage and contact info to the right.

Zoins

@BackroadJunkie said:

@Kudbegud said:
Listed as a So-Called Dollar HK12, 12a & 12b
https://so-calleddollars.com/Events/Pacific_Railway_Completion.html

I'm getting a misconfiguration error. Expired certificate?

Calling @jonathanb .

The So-CalledDollars.com website has an invalid cert. Can someone look into fixing that?

Thanks!

DIMEMAN

Was that last spike really Gold and if so, is it still there?

Goldminers

Spike was 17.6 kt or 73% gold-copper alloy, 14.03 troy oz. dropped into a predrilled special California laurel wood tie, tapped in with silver hammer. Immediately removed and tie and spike replaced with real ones and ceremonial ones to San Francisco museum. Tie was destroyed in 1906 California earthquake fire.

johnny9434

that was quite the feat at that time. fwiw

Goldminers

@DIMEMAN said:
Was that last spike really Gold and if so, is it still there?

That gold spike was there about as long as a slabbed 1916-D FB Mercury in MS67 would last on eBay for $1,000.

Kudbegud

Thanks @Hemispherical , I had to scroll over to the right to see that. I sent an email.

Thanks @Zoins for your post calling @jonathanb to look into it. Hope he sees it.

DIMEMAN

@Goldminers said:

@DIMEMAN said:
Was that last spike really Gold and if so, is it still there?

That gold spike was there about as long as a slabbed 1916-D FB Mercury in MS67 would last on eBay for $1,000.

I should have put the wink emoji on my question.

DCW

BackroadJunkie

@Goldminers said:
Spike was 17.6 kt or 73% gold-copper alloy, 14.03 troy oz. dropped into a predrilled special California laurel wood tie, tapped in with silver hammer.

Yeah, the event that never happened.... Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific was to drive the last (ceremonial) spike. The hammer and the spike were wired to the telegraph lines, and when struck, would signal the world the feat had been done.

"Strobridge and Reed put the last tie, the laurel tie, in place. Durant drove in his spike--or rather tapped in, for it was partially seated in the predrilled hole already. Then Stanford. When he tapped the Golden Spike in, he would signal the waiting country. Reporters compared what was coming to the first shot fired at Lexington. One said the blow would be heard "the fartherest of any by mortal man".
Stanford swung and missed, striking only the rail. It made no difference. The telegraph operator closed the circuit and the wire went out, "DONE!"

Ooops.

jabba

At the post office forever stamps

jedm

@BackroadJunkie said:

The best book I've read on the building of the Transcontinental Railroad is Nothing Like It In The World, by Stephen E. Ambrose. It's an excellent read, if a bit long.

I agree. I found it to be a totally fascinating read.

SkyMan

@BackroadJunkie Thank you for reminding us of this important part of US history!

ldhair

Twobitcollector

Hemispherical

USPS went all out! Some of the things you can order from the PO and they deliver...

https://store.usps.com/store/product/stamp-collectors/transcontinental-railroad-stamp-ceremony-memento-S_570434

—————

If you need shipping supplies you can also order them and have them delivered. Most are free but some are not, check the prices:

https://store.usps.com/store/results/shipping-supplies/_/N-7d0v8v

topstuf

The medal looks like the transcontinental toy train to me.

bigtime36

Just
picked these up this morning

Sweetpie

Same here.

As a bonus, the gold color fame is-actually reflective!

(Wishes they make an oversized picture of these stamp)

This commemorative block of stamps seem to worth more than the 55 cents FV and a keeper to me.

BackroadJunkie

@Sweetpie said:
Same here.

As a bonus, the gold color fame is-actually reflective!

(Wishes they make an oversized picture of these stamp)

Be careful what you ask for...

Transcontinental Railroad Golden Spike Print 11"x17"

Transcontinental Railroad Jupiter Train Print 11"x17"

Transcontinental Railroad No. 119 Train Print 11" x 17"

BackroadJunkie

Aaaannnddd crap.

Even though I've sworn off USPS products, every once in a while I get sucked in. I picked up one of these...

USPS Transcontinental Railroad Box Set

Here's a better description, as well as some factoids about the stamps...
linns:USPS creates Railroad proofs, book to sell as boxed set

mannie gray

I bought a few sheets....they are very attractive.

OPA

@mannie gray said:
I bought a few sheets....they are very attractive.

+1

Goldminers

Yes these are very nice and I got two sheets and awesome.

AUandAG

Love railroads....don't collect anything to do with them but love to see them run. My Great Great Uncle, George Blakeslee of Goldfied, was a jeweler and made the Silver Spike that was the ceremonial spike used in 1904 in the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad. I have no idea where the spike is today. I do have a miniature silver tie tack spike that he made as a souvenir. George also made silver spoons that are very collectable today.
bob