Central Pacific Railroad

“ Huge work forces were needed on both sides. Because of a shortage of willing laborers in California, the Central Pacific Railroad went to China to hire men. More than twelve thousand Chinese were put to work. In spite of vicious anti-Chinese racism, much loss of life, and the harsh climate of the Sierra Nevadas, these men accomplished some of the most remarkable feats of railroad construction of their time using only their own hands, blasting powder, and a few simple tools. ”

“ This same policy would have had the important advantage, from the railroad’s point of view, of developing industry at points which were not affected by every change in the rates of its competitors. The Central Pacific was not the first railroad in the country confronted with the problem of how to treat the non-competitive points upon its lines. ”

“ In 1879 the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Pacific Mail companies agreed that the last-named should set aside space for 600 tons of railroad freight in each of its steamers moving monthly between New York and San Francisco. The railroads were to exercise full authority over the through rates of the steamship company, and for their part were to guarantee that the earnings on the railroad freight shipped were not to be less than $48,000 monthly westbound, and $35,000 monthly eastbound. ”

“ The foundation of any system of railroad rates is the distance which commodities are carried. Generally speaking, [260] the Southern and Central Pacific railroads, like other companies in the United States and Europe, varied their local charges with the distance between point of origin and point of destination. To illustrate this point briefly, two charts are here presented.
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Chart showing rates on second-class freight and on grain in the Sacramento Valley, 1876. ”

“ Thirty millions of dollars have already been invested on the Pacific railroad, and if the time of completion is hastened one year by this tracklayer, as it will be if Central and Union Companies have money enough to grade each five miles a day, there will be a saving of three million dollars on interest alone on that one road. ”

“ A good railroad from San Francisco to Salt Lake, with good terminals, as good a road as the Central Pacific, would cost at least $50,000,000. Of course, a road can be built for a much less sum, but such a road would not compete with the present line, for certainly the present rates are not as much as it would cost to haul the tonnage over a cheap line that could be built for much, if any, less than the figure named. ”

“ The high prices were made higher by the speed of construction. The Union Pacific built west from the Missouri River, but at the same time the Central Pacific was building east from Sacramento, under similar conditions as to government aid. ”

“ Branch lines, like long tentacles, stretched from Roseville north to Chico, on the way to the Oregon state line, [152] and from Lathrop south to Modesto, to be extended to Goshen by August 1, 1872. [153] By 1869 the Sacramento Valley Railroad, with its extension to Placerville, had been bought, and the California Central Railroad from Folsom to Marysville was under Central Pacific control. ”

“ Probably never in the history of railway building, not even in the case of the 'Big Four' who built the Central Pacific—Huntingdon, Stanford, Crocker, and Hopkins—had the call of the railway brought together in a single enterprise men of such outstanding individuality, of such ability and persistence, and destined for success so notable. ”