What was the biggest problem for the Central Pacific Railroad?

There were major challenges to the building of the Transcontinental Railroad for both companies. The Central Pacific's main problem was the Serra Nevada mountains. It took three years to build a railway through the mountain. They used dynamite to blast through the rock.



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Each company faced unprecedented construction problems—mountains, severe weather, and the hostility of Native Americans. On May 10, 1869, in a ceremony at Promontory, Utah, the last rails were laid and the last spike driven.

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Laying track and living in and among the railroad construction camps was often very difficult. Railroad construction crews were not only subjected to extreme weather conditions, they had to lay tracks across and through many natural geographical features, including rivers, canyons, mountains, and desert.

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Workers would often quit whenever a lucrative strike was reported, leaving the arduous manual labor of railroad construction for a fleeting chance at riches in the gold fields. CPRR managers like Charles Crocker started to consider alternative labor sources in 1864. Bank & Cut at Sailor's Spur by A.

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During the post-World War II boom many railroads were driven out of business due to competition from airlines and Interstate highways. The rise of the automobile led to the end of passenger train service on most railroads.

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But there was also a dark side to the historic national project. The railroad was completed by the sweat and muscle of exploited labor, it wiped out populations of buffalo, which had been essential to Indigenous communities, and it extended over land that had been unlawfully seized from tribal nations.

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About 10,000 to 15,000 Chinese workers came to the United States to build the Central Pacific Railroad. Chinese workers found some economic opportunity but also experienced hostility, racism, violence, and legal exclusion. Many came as single men; others left families behind.

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The Central Pacific began laying track eastward from Sacramento, California, in 1863, and the Union Pacific started westward from Omaha, Nebraska, two years later. To meet its manpower needs, the Central Pacific hired thousands of Chinese labourers, including many recruited from farms in Canton.

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However, the race was ultimately a runaway victory for the Union Pacific, which was able to lay 1,085 miles of track to the 690 miles put down by the Central Pacific.

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In 1862, Congress hastily passed the Pacific Railroad Act. This act led to the creation of the Union Pacific, which would lay rails west from Omaha, and the Central Pacific, which would start in Sacramento and build east.

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Also troubling were fears of the Native Americans across whose land the laborers built their road. There were Native American snipers, raids, livestock rustlings, scalpings, and burnings all along the railroad right of way.

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The Central Pacific Railroad, which was tasked with constructing the western half of the Transcontinental Railroad, began hiring Chinese workers in 1864 after facing a labor shortage that jeopardized the railroad's completion.

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