ESPM 50AC Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Pacific Railroad Acts, Promontory, Utah, Golden Spike

• School: Berkeley
• Department: Environmental Science, Policy, And Management
• Course: ESPM 50AC
• Professor: Worthy Ken

Document Summary

Chinese people built the most difficult part of the transcontinental railroad, connecting the country, but this was unknown until recent decades. 1863: ground broken in omaha (up)/sacramento (cp) 1869: golden spike is driven at promontory summit, utah. 1880s: second round of construction: northern pacific, southern pacific, great. Financing the railroad the state and private capital. Railroads in the economy of the american west: natural resource development, settlement. Pacific railway acts of 1862/1864: federal loans, land grants (cprr = 8mm acres, mineral rights, bonds. Labor market: civil war: labor shortage (800 irish, post cw: irish, cornish miners (1200-1300, recruitment in cornwall. Individual recruitment of irish: union pacific: irish labor. Organization of work on the job: work gangs under foreman. Remuneration: unskilled labor: a month + food & shelter (-20, skilled labor: 500 men at -5/day. Social construction: ex-miners, unreliable, lazy, prone to strikes: (cid:862) o(cid:373)e (cid:449)ould stay u(cid:374)til pay day, get a little (cid:373)o(cid:374)ey, get d(cid:396)u(cid:374)k a(cid:374)d (cid:272)lea(cid:396) out. (cid:863)