Pacific Railroad.
The world's first transcontinental railroad, running from America's west coast straight to the East Sea coast, stretched more than 3,000 kilometers.
Its western section had to cross the Sierra Nevada, where the terrain was perilous and glaciers lay above. With an average elevation of two to three thousand meters, it suffered scorching summers, bitter winters, frequent blizzards, and cliffs hundreds of meters high that had to be blasted through.
Thoreau, author of Walden, once said, "Beneath every railroad tie in America lies the corpse of an Irish worker."
Yet during construction of the western section of the Pacific Railroad, even the Irish workers fled. So the project's builder, the Central Pacific Railroad Company, hired Chinese workers in huge numbers—then Chinese laborers fell in droves: aboard ships transporting them across the ocean, amid towering mountains, in deserts, and along salt lakes.
Roped up and suspended high in the air, they carved into cliff faces and packed them with explosives. They were often killed by falling stones, or by unstable gunpowder and frayed ropes that sent them plunging to the bottom of the cliffs;
Caught by sudden blizzards, they froze to death in batches inside their tents, or were buried in avalanches. Even in death, their hands still gripped shovels and pickaxes;
And of course, even more Chinese laborers fell during the building of this railroad—from cold and hunger, disease, and brutal working conditions—
For the western section of the Pacific Railroad, saying that "beneath every railroad tie lies the corpse of an Irish worker" was no exaggeration.
Shen Le bent his knees and lowered his head, slowly stroking the icy rail. More than a century had passed. The once-glorious transcontinental railroad had been replaced and absorbed by the modern rail network, leaving behind only fragments of local rail lines