Chinese railroad workers' contribution recognized

More than 150 years ago, the story of Chinese and Irish laborers who toiled in backbreaking conditions to build America's first Transcontinental Railroad remained largely untold, and their sacrifices were often overlooked.

In a remarkable display of unity, the Chinese and Irish communities in San Francisco are joining forces to ensure those forgotten heroes are finally recognized.

"The Chinese workers and the Irish workers were never recognized," Leo Cassidy, board member of the United Irish Cultural Center, or UICC, in San Francisco, told China Daily. "They've never been commended for all their work and how they suffered."

The desire to rectify the past fueled a recent collaboration between the two ethnic groups that stole the show at the San Francisco St. Patrick's Day Parade on March 16.

The UICC's float, designed as an old train, displayed spikes, wooden ties, metal rails and banners proclaiming "Chinese and Irish Railroad Workers" on either side.

On the float, members of both communities, along with local dignitaries, sat on railroad ties, wearing bamboo hats reminiscent of the Chinese railroad workers.

"The theme is unity, showing that both communities still work together," explained Cassidy, who played a key role in creating the float. Next year, the float will participate in the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown.

In Cassidy's eyes, the stories of the railroad workers were "phenomenal and inspiring". While building the railroad in 1869, Chinese and Irish workers set a record by laying 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the track by hand in a single day, an "amazing achievement", as he put it.

"We want to tell the real stories of what actually happened, and some of the real stories are not pretty. But you can't just erase history. You got to tell the truth," said Cassidy.

The Transcontinental Railroad was the largest engineering project of the time and crucial for developing the American West and connecting the United States across the continent.

Building the railroad was a monumental task, laden with perilous conditions. Between 1865 and 1869, thousands of Chinese immigrants became the backbone of the Central Pacific Railroad's workforce, comprising 90 percent of much of the construction.

Dangerous conditions

The Central Pacific Railroad, the western section of the Transcontinental Railroad, required tunneling through the imposing Sierra Nevada, which meant the laborers worked in dangerous conditions, such as carving out tunnels through the solid granite mountains at high altitudes and constructing trestles across deep canyons, according to the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford University.

While their feat was considered miraculous, the cost was immense. The Central Pacific kept no records of worker deaths, but estimates range from hundreds to thousands, with the vast majority of the fatalities being Chinese.

Despite their sacrifice, these workers were shunned from the railroad's completion ceremony in 1869, and their contribution was erased from the narrative.

The Chinese community has been at the forefront of advocating for recognition, with California in 2017 designating May 10 as Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial Day.