Who hired Irish immigrants to work on the railroad?
Labor ShortageIn early 1865 the Central Pacific had work enough for 4,000 men. Yet contractor Charles Crocker barely managed to hold onto 800 laborers at any given time. Most of the early workers were Irish immigrants.
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Most of them were Chinese workers who were paid less for their labor than their European counterparts. Chinese migrants worked in the Sierra foothills for the Central Pacific Railroad. For years, railroad workers were largely overlooked in memorial events marking the railroad's completion.
The transcontinental railroad married the East with the West, and it melded a variety of cultures — from the estimated 15,000 Chinese workers to the 10,000 Irishmen.
In 1862 Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Acts which designated the 32nd parallel as the initial transcontinental route and gave huge grants of lands for rights-of-way. The legislation authorized two railroad companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, to construct the lines.
Railroad companies also redefined the cultural landscape of the nation by heavily promoting immigration, targeting specific ethnic groups that railroad officials considered desirable, such as northern Europeans, attracting them with employment opportunities, sale of cheap lands, and reduced transportation rates.
To meet their manpower needs, both railroads employed immigrants to lay the track and blast the tunnels. The Central Pacific hired more than 13,000 Chinese laborers and Union Pacific employed 8,000 Irish, German, and Italian laborers.