What did Union Pacific workers fear while creating the railroad?
As the Union Pacific cut its way westward across the Platte Valley in 1865, its workers grew fearful of the Indian menace. Certainly, the Northern Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho maintained a presence on what had once been their prime hunting land.
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They had to face dangerous work conditions – accidental explosions, snow and rock avalanches, which killed hundreds of workers, not to mention frigid weather.
Answer and Explanation: For the US government and the railroad companies, the biggest obstacles in building the Transcontinental Railroad were mountains of solid granite and attacks by Native American war parties.
Conflicts broke out between major railroads, and larger lines took over small roads. Between the time of the Civil War and 1900 the Pennsylvania Railroad took over more than 600 formerly independent short lines. Rate discrimination (distorted costs for service) was a major issue.
Answer and Explanation: For the US government and the railroad companies, the biggest obstacles in building the Transcontinental Railroad were mountains of solid granite and attacks by Native American war parties.
At first railroad companies were reluctant to hire Chinese workers, but the immigrants soon proved to be vital. They toiled through back-breaking labor during both frigid winters and blazing summers. Hundreds died from explosions, landslides, accidents and disease.
The job was not easy. Both railroads had to cross rugged terrain, desert and mountains and both had to deal with harsh weather. At times the greatest danger came from the Indian raids as the railroads intersected the Native Americans' land. The Indians attacked the crews in order to protect their homeland.
Railroad workers put in long hours; a 1907 law restricted train crews to 16 hours work out of every 24. Well into the twentieth century, work was unsteady and unsafe. One railroad worker in every 357 nationally died on the job in 1889.
But the Depression, and the switch to automobiles after World War II, dealt a blow from which the railroads still have not recovered. A deadly cycle set in. As the number of passengers using the trains decreased, causing revenues to fall, the railroads tried to survive by cutting back on maintenance and service.
But freight railroad abuses grew rampant. Money lined the pockets of greedy public officials who awarded generous terms to the railroads. Railroad companies set their own shipping rates. Sometimes it was more expensive for a small farmer to ship goods to a nearby town than to a faraway city.
Trains were crossing time zones much quicker, making it difficult to keep a standard schedule. When it came to telling time, it was clear the railroads, and those that utilized the railroads, were in desperate need of some order.
Unlike the central pacific workers, an obstacle which was directly faced and experienced by the union pacific railroad workers is conflict with American Indians (Native Americans) because the American Indians wanted to reclaim the jobs and way of life that was being taken away from them.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, U.S. railroad companies were expanding at a breakneck pace, straining to span the continent as quickly--and cheaply--as they could. The work was brutally difficult, the pay was low, and workers were injured and killed at a very high rate.
Female operatives were some of the hardest working employees in mills and factories, but also some of the most exploited. Drawn by the prospect of freedom and money, they often logged twelve-hour days and there were few codes and regulations to ensure their safety.