Questions | Capital District | Chinese Communities
The Push of Prejudice: Chinese Migration to New York
Document 2
Vocabulary
Transcontinental: Across the continent, from one shore to the other.
Treacherous: Dangerous.
Terrain: Area of ground.
Daunting: Frightening, especially as in making a task too difficult to complete.
Embankments: Steep mounds of earth.
Meager: Insufficient.
"With the California Gold Rush and the opening of the West came an increased interest in building a transcontinental railroad… The first Chinese were hired in 1865 at approximately $28 per month to do the very dangerous work of blasting and laying ties over the treacherous terrain of the high Sierras…Work in the beginning was slow and difficult. After the first 23 miles, Central Pacific faced the daunting task of laying tracks over terrain that rose 7,000 feet in 100 miles. To conquer the many sheer embankments, the Chinese workers used techniques they had learned in China to complete similar tasks. They were lowered by ropes from the top of cliffs in baskets, and while suspended, they chipped away at the granite and planted explosives that were used to blast tunnels...Without the efforts of the Chinese workers in the building of America's railroads, our development and progress as a nation would have been delayed by years."
Document 2: Excerpt of Speech by Hon. John T. Doolittle of California in the House of Representatives, Thursday, April 29, 1999. “Chinese-American Contribution to Transcontinental Railrod,” Congressional Record: April 29, 1999 (Extensions), Page E822.From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov], [DOCID:cr29ap99-49].
Document 2 Short-Answer Questions
- According to Congressman Doolittle, what percentage of the labor that built the transcontinental railroad were Chinese immigrants?
- What geographic factor made the work extremely dangerous?
- Without the efforts of Chinese labor in building the railroads, what would have been delayed?
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