… ALL ABOARD Camp Internet for our California Backcountry Railroad Dig ! Today we will be exploring how and where the Central Pacific Railroad was built, who managed the project, and whose labor brought it to become one of the most amazing engineering feats in the history of the United States.
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:08AM PST (-0800 GMT)
IMPORTANT – please be sure to post the NUMBER of the question you are answering at the beginning of your answer. And try to always answer in full sentences – not just the answer, but the answer as part of a full sentence. This helps us understand what you are posting an answer to.
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:08AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #1 – Who was the engineer that first conceived of the railroad and then surveyed the Sierras to find the most likely passage to the east ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:08AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #2 – When this engineer couldn’t find financial backers in Washington DC, or in San Francisco, what city did he go looking for backers in ? And why was there any money for investments in the city he chose ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:08AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #3 – What are the names of the four men who became the Central Pacific Railroad backers ? And what types of businesses did they run in California ? button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:09AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #4 - Were these four businessmen millionaires when the project began ? Were they millionaires after the project was completed ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:09AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #5 – In order to make sure the project was supported in California, one of these Big Four was elected to become California’s Governor. Which One ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:09AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #6 – What legislation in Washington was passed to fund the railroad’s construction and when?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:09AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #7 – which President signed the legislation ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:10AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #8 - This federal funding would pay the Big Four different dollars per mile of track laid, depending on if it was in the Central Valley or the Sierra Nevada mountains and backcountry. Which location were they paid the MOST to lay track through ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:10AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #9 – In order to get paid the most, the Big Four arranged to have the point where the Sierras begin re-surveyed in the hopes of gaining more money by being shown to have laid more track in the mountains. What was the result of this survey ? And how much extra money did the survey results bring them ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:10AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #10 – what happened to the original engineer for the project ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:11AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #11 – read this newspaper announcement of the time and tell us what it says. button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:11AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #12 – who managed the day-to-day operations of actually BUILDING the railroad ? Read both of these to find out the answers please.
button and
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:12AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #13 - who was hired to provide the intense labor of carving out the path of the railroad from solid granite, and to lay the track through the backcountry ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:12AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #14 – why were people from this specific country hired for the project ?
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:12AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #15 read of the amazingly hard work they had to perform, then chose one of their remarkable efforts and describe it to us here in the Dig.
button
Your Railroad Guide: . . . . Tue, Mar 5, 7:14AM PST (-0800 GMT)
Dig question #16– Once they made it through the California Backcountry and headed east across Nevada and Utah, what was the meeting place where the western and eastern lines of track were to meet ? And what action symbolically united the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts at this meting place ?
button