America’s First Transcontinental Railway: How They Built the Impossible Route

Transcontinental railroad history: how Chinese and Irish workers built America's first coast-to-coast line, and the cost. In 1862, in the middle of civil war, Abraham Lincoln signed a law to join the Atlantic and the Pacific by rail. Two companies raced towards each other: the Central Pacific east from California, the Union Pacific west from Nebraska. Every mile laid brought government bonds and land. Thousands of Chinese workers blasted through the granite of the Sierra Nevada in deep winter snow. Irish immigrants and war veterans laid track across the Plains. Many never lived to see the golden spike driven at Promontory Summit in May 1869. The line cut a journey of months to about a week, and changed a continent. Chapters 00:00 A Nation Divided by Distance 04:00 Lincoln and the Railway Act 08:00 The Big Four and Theodore Judah 13:00 Into the Sierra Nevada 19:00 Hell on Wheels Across the Plains 24:00 The Great Race 29:00 The Golden Spike, 1869 33:00 What the Railroad Changed Subscribe to Iron & Endeavour for more stories of the people who built our world. #engineering #history #goldenspike