Chinese Railroad Workers Were Almost Written Out of History. Now They’re Getting Their Due.

The role of Chinese workers in building the transcontinental railroad was mentioned in my 5th grade U.S. history textbook back when Eisenhower was president.

Thank you for this article.

Thank you, NYT. My 8th grade social studies teacher spent 30 seconds noting that the Chinese contributed to the railway expansion. Very little is understood of the Asian American civil rights movement. Even worse, very few even have knowledge that there was one! My dad came to the States in the 1960s. It wasn't until the 1970s that he was granted the right to own property. He shared stories of horrific racial discrimination. It's difficult to reconcile -- for any race other than white -- the enormous contributions made yet still having to fight for equal rights. Not more, simply equal. What a concept.

Taking absolutely nothing from the workers rightfully lauded in this story, the first transcontinental railroad was actually completed 14 years earlier across the Isthmus of Panama.

In the history books I read as a child the contribution of Chinese labour in building the transcontinental railroad was acknowledged. Before the industrial revolution most people never travelled farther than ten miles from their home in their lifetime. With the invention of the steam train everything was changed. The digital revolution is certainly a major step forward for humanity, but steam locomotion superseding horse drawn transport and the sailing ship was a revolutionary transformation unlike anything since.

Ironically, one reason for the preponderance of Chinese railworkers is the ubiquitous Chinese custom of drinking tea. While thousands of railworkers of other ethnicities died from drinking contaminated water, the fact that the Chinese boiled their water before drinking it kept them alive.

Lovely article thank you for sharing

I hope they can build a high speed rail system here.

I’d have to disagree with Ms. Chao - the transcontinental railroad was more consequential than the digital revolution for this country. I don’t know, perhaps because I am a history buff, perhaps because I was raised and educated in California, I was always aware of the enormous contrubiion of Chinese workers to the Union Pacific. So glad to see them getting their due.

On the East Coast of America, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886. It served to welcome scores of immigrants upon their arrival, even if many suffered deprivations once they made it ashore. On the West Coast things were quite different, especially after Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which simultaneously thwarted immigration and emboldened scores of communities to permanently banish hard working and skilled Chinese laborers, just like those who worked on the railroad. Perhaps because, at least in part, they were too skilled and ambitious to compete with? Among the darkest chapters in U.S. history took place in Eureka, California in 1885 when the entire Chinese community, numbering over 300, was threatened with hanging in the public square if they failed to leave the City and its surrounding area in less than 24 hours. Other notorious "cleansing" events during roughly the same time period occurred in mining and railroad towns across the West, including Truckee and Petaluma, California; Seattle-Tacoma, Washington; and Rock Springs, Wyoming. Small wonder the Chinese laborers who helped build the railroad were denied significant recognition until now. It has been long overdue!

NYTimes, thank you for the article and thank you, for very informed comments Nice way to end the day, with positive thinking from people the length of the Transcontinental I enjoyed.

With tremendous gratitude to Connie Young Yu and Gordon Chang and their colleagues/coworkers on this important project. Thank you for all the work to unearth, acknowledge and make this known to current and future generations of all Americans. Kudos on an important job incredibly well done.

Disappointing journalism that fails to mention that the ceremony took place at a U.S. national park unit - Golden Spike National Historical Park - which preserves this important part of American history for the nation. The writer also fails to mention park staff or the Superintendent who has worked diligently to build inclusiveness among the many communities of descendants with a connection here. The change from 1969 to 2019 is also a story of how the NPS has matured over the past half century to become a stronger convener of all those with powerful connections to American history.

How can anyone not know that the western part of the Transcontinental RR was built mainly by Chinese and the eastern part largely by Irish? I learned it in textbooks in the 1960's and 70's. Did someone forget between then and now?

I am more and more moved by accounts of the immigrant experience in America and their unrecognized contribution. These people were largely not even allowed to contribute to the nation they were helping build. Wherever you come from, you are welcome in my country!

I am more and more moved by accounts of the immigrant experience in America and their unrecognized contribution. These people were largely not even allowed to contribute to the nation they were helping build. Wherever you come from, you are welcome in my country!

Immigrants get the dirty work and little recognition. But they were proud nonetheless. I am first generation Italian-American born in the 1930s. My maternal grandfather Vncenzo was foreman of a road gang on the Pennsylvania railroad. My uncle Louie was foreman of a road gang on the Reading and my uncle Jim (much younger than the others) got the prestige job as locamotive engineer. We lived within earshot of both railroads. And at Sunday gatherings at our house, the sound of a locamotive would prompt a sudden response from the dozen or so men at the tables. They would put down their wine glasses, pull out their Hamilton pocket watches and check to see if the train was on schedule - and they would comment appropriately if they were not.

Maybe someone should talk to rail fans. The contributions of Chinese workers have always been documented and known by those who have the interest, not only on the Pacific Railroad but continuing railroad construction in California, Oregon, and, as ms writes, in Canada. A delegation of Chinese workers were honored at the Golden Spike ceremony in 1869 and joined in the private celebrations hosted by Charles Strobridge of the Union Pacific. A contemporary reporter from San Francisco wrote that all the workers of the Central Pacific were hard-working, sober, and realized the importance of their work. Unfortunately, this flies in the face of an era that prefers watching "Deadwood" and the like than doing serious study of history. It's not all bad news all of the time.

Oddly enough, I went to high school decades ago in a small conservative town in the East, and the contribution of the Chinese workers in building the railroad was fully noted in U.S. History. Perhaps not so much in the West?

I am glad that the contributions of Chinese laborers are finally being recognized. It's been a long time coming. Over 2 decades ago, I visited the location of the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which also employed plenty of Chinese. Our tour guide noted that the mural had been re-painted recently to include Chinese laborers. I personally came to the US as a toddler in the late 1970s and consider myself a half or first-generation American. However, family lore is one of my great-great-great uncles might have immigrated to California in the 1850s, made his fortune somehow between the railroads, mining, and business, and immigrated back to our ancestral village in China. (basically fulfilled the dream of most Chinese immigrants back then) So I might actually be 4th or 5th generation if I count by him. I also have a connection to Stanford so interesting to hear about that history.