Transcontinental Railroad Workers' Pay, 1869: Ten Miles of Track in One Day

Who built the transcontinental railroad, and what were they paid? On April 28, 1869, Central Pacific crews laid a little over ten miles of track in one working day in Utah Territory: eight rail handlers, Irish almost to a man, a moving line of a thousand men, Chinese crews at up to $35 a month in gold, and Union Pacific hands at $3 a day in paper. The transcontinental railroad told by the clock of one day: wages, food, the strike of 1867, the winters in the Sierra Nevada tunnels, "Hell on Wheels," the $10,000 bet, and who was still waiting for his pay after the last spike at Promontory Summit. CHAPTERS 00:00 A reporter times the track: April 28, 1869 01:49 1. Before seven: why they were racing 04:50 2. 7:15: the first rail and the eight men 07:57 3. Mid-morning: a thin line of a thousand men 10:04 4. Eight hundred men: how the crews were hired 12:19 5. Late morning: water, tea, and the store in the cars 14:09 6. 1:30: six miles, and a place named Victory 15:12 7. $35 a month in gold: the pay 18:44 8. The strike of June 1867 20:33 9. 2:30: the grade, and the Sierra winters 23:20 10. Late afternoon: the Union Pacific at $3 a day 26:11 11. "Hell on Wheels" 28:15 12. 7:00: how far, exactly? 30:01 13. After dark: the time book and the $10,000 bet 31:46 14. Twelve days later: Promontory Summit 34:38 15. What the clock leaves out Sources: U.S. Senate Report 689 (1877), testimony of Charles Crocker and James H. Strobridge — http://cprr.org/Museum/Chinese_Immigr... John R. Gillis, "Tunnels of the Pacific Railroad" (1870) — http://cprr.org/Museum/Tunnels.html Letters of Samuel B. Reed, 1867–69 (University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Railroads and the Making of Modern America) — https://railroads.unl.edu/documents/v... Utley and Ketterson, Golden Spike, National Park Service Historical Handbook 40 (1969) — https://www.npshistory.com/handbooks/... Erle Heath, "A Railroad Record That Defies Defeat," Southern Pacific Bulletin (May 1928) — https://cprr.org/Museum/Southern_Paci... Crofutt's Trans-Continental Tourist's Guide (1873) — https://archive.org/details/crofuttst... National Park Service, "Ten Miles in One Day" — https://www.nps.gov/places/ten-miles-... Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, Stanford University — https://chineserailroadworkers.stanfo... Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum, Chinese-American contribution — http://cprr.org/Museum/Chinese.html Edwin L. Sabin, Building the Pacific Railway (1919) — https://archive.org/details/buildingp... Grenville M. Dodge, How We Built the Union Pacific Railway (1910) — https://archive.org/details/howwebuil... Charles Nordhoff, California for Health, Pleasure, and Residence (1872) — https://archive.org/details/californi... Albert D. Richardson, Beyond the Mississippi (1867) — https://archive.org/details/beyondmis... Samuel Bowles, Our New West (1869) — https://archive.org/details/ournewwes... Henry M. Stanley, My Early Travels and Adventures, vol. 1 — https://archive.org/details/myearlytr... William A. Bell, New Tracks in North America (2nd ed., 1870) — https://archive.org/details/newtracks... Wesley C. Mitchell, Gold, Prices, and Wages under the Greenback Standard (1908) — https://archive.org/details/goldprice... Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Consumer Price Index, 1800– — https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-... The 1869 San Francisco newspaper reports are quoted as reprinted in the 1969 Park Service handbook and the 1928 Southern Pacific Bulletin. Dollar conversions use 1869 as the base year and are estimates; gold and paper dollars are named as such. Illustrations are AI-generated recreations; narration uses a synthetic voice. #TranscontinentalRailroad #OldWest #AmericanHistory