Working On The Railroad

- Karen Bush Gibson

Although California’s population grew considerably after the 1840s, it didn’t have enough laborers to fill the needs of the Central Pacific in 1863. Many of the workers who started with the railroad left to seek their fortunes in gold and silver mines. Desperate to find a solution, the Central Pacific’s construction head, Charles Crocker, suggested Chinese workers.

The first Chinese immigrants had arrived in California in the early 1850s, but discrimination and anti-Chinese laws had made it difficult for them to find employment. It seemed like a good fit: The Central Pacific needed workers, and the Chinese needed jobs. But the Central Pacific’s supervisor, James H. Strobridge, was skeptical. He doubted that the Chinese could handle the physical work of building a railroad. He thought that Irishmen would refuse to work with Chinese workers. But Crocker insisted, and a group of Chinese men were hired in March 1865. At the Central Pacific’s peak of employing a 12,000-man workforce, about 10,000 laborers were Chinese.