Why do government infrastructure projects take so long? The California High Speed Rail project is a running joke. Voters approved bond funding to build a European- and Asian-style fast train from San Francisco and Sacramento to Los Angeles with 2008’s Proposition 1A. We’re now 15 years past that date. The project’s current projection is that […]
What can the transcontinental railroad teach us about anti-Asian racism?
Chinese immigrants helped achieve ‘one of the greatest engineering feats in U.S. history.’ But their sacrifices are seldom remembered.
Train tracks run through Loray, Nevada. The transcontinental railroad extended through five states and connected America’s coasts.Photograph by Philip Cheung
ByRay Rogers
Email
Every May, tourists gather in Promontory Summit, Utah, to watch two trains meet nose to nose on tracks first laid more than 150 years ago. The Central Pacific Railroad’s Jupiter, painted blue with red and gold accents, whistles as steam billows against a clear sky and rolling hills. Facing it, the Union Pacific Railroad’s red-and-gold 119, its bell swinging, slows to a stop.