This year cspan is touring cities across the country. Next a look at our recent visit to sacramento california. Historyatching american tv. All weekend, every weekend on cspan3. The California State Railroad museum is significant not only its collection, but where we sit. We sit at the corner of front and i streets in old sacramento, very close to the birthplace of the railroad. California became a state in 1850. Even prior to that people had talked and dreamed about a railroad spanning the American Continent. It was really important to the United States to have a railroad connecting california because in the 1860s, the civil war was raging. And californias gold and nevada silver funded a large range of efforts in the war. Prior to the secession of the Southern States, congress could not agree on a route for a railroad. Southern congressmen thought it would give more power to the north politically. Similarly, northern congressmen thought it would enable slavery to spread and give the south more power. So one of the weird results of the secession of the Southern States is that it allowed a smaller congress to decide on a northern route for the railroad which came to california because they were capitalists here, agitating to build a railroad to sacramento. Locomotive behind me is the governor stanford. The stanford is significant to us because it was the first locomotive delivered in 1862, as the railroad was beginning construction. It arrived here on the docks in sacramento in pieces and it was assembled close to the spot where it sits today. Stanford had been the governor here and part of his platform was an antichinese platform. And yet, they did become the largest employers of chinese. The chinese outpaced the white workers. They were very dedicated and they worked very hard. And even though it was still discriminatory and they werent paid as much as white workers, it was for the time, a very fair way to treat the chinese. And the chinese felt they were treated well versus other parts of California Society at the time. If you research the railroad physically, you can find evidence of chinese habitation. You can find a particular kind of pottery called brown where that was only made in china. Chinese were all over the route during the building of the railroad. We are in the great hall of the California State Railroad museum. This explores the idea of community development. In the 1860s, california might well have been hawaii, as far as the rest of the United States was concerned. West of the river, was just miles of nothing. Culturally, for the United States, it was a vast, unknown quantity. And several hundred miles down of california there was a 12 month growing season and a land of prosperity. It was important for the country, during the civil war, to have a collection with california. Connection with california. Suddenly, instead of a fourmonth journey back to United States, you could come back in 10 days. That meant suddenly california is blessed with a 430 mile long Central Valley with some of the richest growing soil in the world. And suddenly you had a reason for agriculture, fruit and wheat to be grown and now you have markets for it to be sold in. You can connect with the valuable markets of asia for different food items. Suddenly, the United States goes from being a nation of the north American Continent to really spanning the north american content and it is an easy way because there is transportation back and forth. But they did have to build stations for water and food. Fuel, logistical things like that. So communities developed around railroads and you started to see stores pop up. New merchants and bankers because they could bring crops home from market. They could buy manufactured goods and order from the sears catalog. They could get telegrams and learn the daily news. Instantly, because the telegraph was instant. So the railroads caused this sense of community. They caused the nation to develop into the complex system that we have today. The collection of equipment that is inside the museum really spans the era from 18621950s, early 1960s. So you see a lot of different kinds of equipment. This is from the 1870s, it is a beautiful piece of steam equipment. It is quite small compared to railcars today. Locomotives today. The other side of that is a pacific class locomotive that was a very large, high speed and powerful locomotive that was used to pull passenger planes. Passenger trains. The one behind me is very beautifully painted. By the time you get into the mid20th century, you are looking at black, heavy industrial objects. Much less fancy but still beautifully compelling. Right now, we are in the empire gallery. The exhibit that we currently have related to that is the pullman strike. This was a National Strike that paralyzed rail traffic in 27 states. Basically, george pullman, the owner of the pullman Manufacturing Company had to cut wages for his workers but he also owned the company town of pullman, illinois and he didnt cut rent or prices at the company store, so they felt unfairly treated and they stopped working. They went on strike. This got eugene debs involved. He was tied in with the American Railway union. He managed to get sympathetic rail workers in many places to sympathetically strike with the Pullman Company strikers. But where it was most prevalent was here in sacramento. This was the home of the southern potential shops. It was a 240 acre facility where every piece of moving equipment on this line went through here for maintenance and repair. This stopped real traffic out of many places. By extension is stopped rail traffic moving out of many other places. So to get rail traffic moving again, the federal government got involved and attached mail cars to every train, and they were federal property so the mail had to move. The very first train moved but was derailed by a broken rail and overturned an engineer and two people were killed in the process. So president Grover Cleveland brought in troops and they marched on the sacramento. They were here for two months. They walked on the lawns outside of the state capital. They had a significant contingent at the sacramento railyard itself. It was a hot summer with many days over 100 and eventually people got tired of the strike and service resumed. Some more fire, some were rehired. The rails began and nobody really won or lost in the strike. Eugene debs went to jail. President cleveland signed a proclamation announcing labor day as an official holiday as a result of the strike. It is hard to imagine sacramento or california without the impact of the railroads. The gold rush made sacramento wealthy and politically important and because of the gold rush, there was capital here to Start Building awealthyd politically important. The gold rush, there is capital to Start Building a railroad that connected california with the rest of the United States. Find out where the cspan cities tour is going next online. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. Cspan has your coverage of the road to the white house, 2016, where you will find the candidates, speeches, debates, and most importantly, your questions
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