During
six years, the builders of the Central Pacific, at times numbering 14,000 men,
had pierced the snow covered, granite walls of the high Sierra and extended their
trail of iron over the barren plains 675 miles eastward. For more than five
years the Union Pacific had been building westward. Officers of both roads were
fully aware of the future advantages that would accrue to the company having
the longest mileage. This rivalry extended through the ranks—from the
presidents to the track laborers. There followed some marvelous feats of track-laying.
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| Irish Rail Workers -- UPRR |
The Irish tract layers average 2.3 miles a day. Considering they
had the Sierra Nevada Mountains to cross, plus stretches of the Rocky
Mountains, the average track laid per day by the Central Pacific was less. Once
the men had everything they needed at their disposal, they could lay down track
rather quickly. Engineers estimated that, if all conditions were perfect, it
was possible to lay ten miles of track in one day.
Delays in obtaining and moving men, supplies and equipment forward
caused the daily average to be far less. However, in an effort to prove who
were the best rail builders, competitiveness drove the two railroads to
contests in laying track. First, the Union Pacific broke the record with six
miles of track in one day. When Charles Crocker and his crew made up primarily
of Chinese workers were challenged to beat that, they did so by a mile. The
competition escalated. Crocker bragged that his men could lay ten miles in one
day. Vice President Durant of the Union Pacific took him up and wagered $10,000
it could not be done,
and that his money was "covered."
For
several days Crocker and his construction superintendent, J. H. Strobridge,
marshaled their forces and laid their plans. Ties were hauled ahead by two
horse teams and distributed along the right-of-way. For some distance the ties
were spaced on the already graded road bed. Rails and track materials were
moved up from the rear and held in trains ready to advance. More than four thousand men
and hundreds of horses and wagons were on the spot. Every man knew his
particular job, taught by many months of track work. No one would get in the
other fellow's way. In the Central Pacific camp, the patient and methodical Chinese were stirred to a pitch of excitement never shown before, and shared
with the few hundred whites the anxiety to "get at the job."
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| Chinese Rail Workers - CPRR |
The original date set to meet that challenge was April 27th.
However, a mishap with one of the engines delayed the event by one day. The
Union Pacific scoffed, but starting at 7:00a.m. the morning of April 28th, the
Central Pacific crew of eight Irishmen and hundreds of Chinese set about to
prove their skill.
The following is from the book, Museum Memories, Volume 1:
By the time Promontory was selected as
the meeting point, Central Pacific tracks had reached Monument Point, just
north of the lake shore [Great Salt Lake]. Three sprawling grading camps with about 275 tents
were located there. Although the Transcontinental line was not yet completed,
increasing numbers of immigrants were moving westward by rail rather than by wagon train. They took the Union Pacific from Omaha to the terminus just beyond
Corrine and hired stagecoaches from there to Monument Point. Then they boarded
a Central Pacific train and arrived in California just a little more than a
week after leaving Omaha.
Both railroads were benefiting from the
increased ticket sales, but competition between the companies had become a
habit, and officials pressed their contractors were more speed. A great rivalry
as to which company could lay the most track in one day had commenced early in
1868. UP made six miles, and the CP laid seven mile soon afterward. The UP topped
that feat with 8 and 1/2 miles. Charles Crocker then announced that the Central
Pacific could lay ten miles in one day. Thomas Durant, vice president of the
Union Pacific, wagered $10,000 that it could not be done.
Consequently on April 29 [sic], 1869, only fourteen
miles from Promontory Summit, the work commenced. Several prominent men from
the East and the West came to see the phenomena, and a committee from the Union
Pacific arrived to document the progress. Crocker had planned the operation
with exact precision. Ties have been placed on the roadbed the previous night,
and five locomotives, each pulling 16 cars with enough supplies for two miles
of track, were in position. A large diverse crew was on hand. There were
Caucasians born in the United States, former slaves with African ancestry,
European immigrants, Mexicans, French Indians, a few Native Americans, and more
than 3,000 Chinese.
At the first light of dawn, the men
were ready to go. The Chinese workers leaped onto the flat cars and began
throwing down kegs of bolts and spikes, bundles of fishplates (metal plates
used to join the rails), and the iron rails. The flat cars had rollers along
their outer edges to make it easier to slide the rails off. As this operation
was being mounted, three “pioneers” moved out along the grade, aligning the
ties that had been placed the night before. Next, the foreman shouted “Down!”
and a team of eight Irish workers (two at the front of each rail and two at the
back on each side of the bed) grabbed the 560 pound rails with tongs and dropped
them into position. Two men followed and aligned the rails with a portable
track gauge to maintain the correct with. Chinese workers came right behind and
placed spikes in the proper places atop the rails. Others carried the bolts and
fishplates in buckets. Teams of ten (five for each rail) then drove the spikes.
Each worker would drive his assigned spike and then walk forward to the same
spot on the next rail without passing another man, allowing the worker to
proceed at a walking pace.
The next team of “straighteners”
repaired any defects. Then came one crew to ballast the rails and another crew
of fillers. These were followed by a group of four hundred tampers. Empty cars
were moved to sidings to make room for the ones next in line, and the entire
process was repeated over and over. The string of 1,000 workers advanced at the
rate of a mile an hour. Chinese with pails strung over their shoulders moved
among the men with water and tea. The telegraph construction party kept pace
with the railroad crews, digging holes, putting in the polls, and stringing the
wire.
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| Railroad camp near Victory, Utah, where stopped for lunch during ten mile day. |
By the time the whistle announced the noon
meal at 1:30 p.m., the workers had laid six miles of track. They named the site
“Victory” (later Rozel, Utah) because they knew by then that they would be
successful. The workers and several distinguished guests took an hour for
lunch, and another hour was used to bend rails for the curves that lay ahead.
Construction engineer J. H. Strobridge had a reserve crew standing by, but the
first crew was intent on completing their unprecedented feat, and they forged
ahead.
By 7:00 p.m. the Central Pacific was
ten miles and fifty-six feet farther than it had been at dawn, an achievement
that had never been done before and has never been matched since. The eight
Irish track-layers had put down 3,520 rails. They had lifted 125 tons of iron
rails plus the weight of the tongs, and amazing eleven tons per man per hour!
The spikers drove 28,160 ties that have been put into place by the Chinese, and
the bolt crews put 14,480 bolts into place. To demonstrate the quality of the
new track, engineer Jim Campbell ran a train over it at forty-two miles per
hour. Then the last of the five construction trains was backed down the long
grade to the construction camp at Monument Point. Twelve hundred men piled onto
the flatcars for the ride, smiling, cheering, and congratulating each other.
You can also read an excellent article about this event on the
Central Pacific Railroad museum site by CLICKING
HERE.
Did UP vice president Thomas Durant ever pay Charles Crocker of
the Central Pacific the $10,000 that he lost on the bet? There is no evidence
he ever did.
There is a replica of the sign that marks the end of the ten miles
and fifty-six feet of track laid that day about two weeks before the Golden
Spike ceremony that joined the two railroads. The original sign, most of the paint worn off, was donated to
the Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum in Salt Lake City. In commemoration of
the sesquicentennial of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad
that took place in Utah, the museum has commemorative pins of the Ten Mile Day
available in their book store and gift shop.
Escape from Gold Mountain is now offered digitally exclusively on Amazon and in the Kindle
Unlimited program. The book is also available in print format on
both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Here are the purchase links:
Sources:
Museum
Memories, Volume 1
(Salt Lake City, Utah: International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2009), Pgs. 425-27.
http://cprr.org/Museum/Southern_Pacific_Bulletin/Ten_Mile_Day.html
(May 1928 issue of the Southern Pacific Bulletin)
