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What were the challenges for building a railroad?

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As the building of the railroad continued, the Central Pacific struggled to keep laborers. The work was difficult and dangerous. In order to keep up with their progress, Charles Crocker, the head of construction, began to hire Chinese immigrants. read more

Another challenge they faced was the need to create tunnels through the mountains. Using nitroglycerin, they had to blast through the mountains in a very dangerous manner. On average, they were only able to get through 1 foot of mountain at a time. read more

Building the route across the Sierra was an epic challenge. It took from 1863 to 1868 to get the railroad from Sacramento to the Nevada border (admittedly, the 2 years were during the Civil War, so getting anything done was even more of a problem) and another year to get the line across Nevada and half of Utah to Promontory. read more

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Further Research

PROBLEMS WHILE BUILDING THE RAILROAD
canadian-pacific-railway.weebly.com

The Pacific Railway
railroad.lindahall.org