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death toll is not known but it's over 1000 they estimate of just chinese laborers. at the peak there were 15,000 or so workers working on the rail. in fact the

death toll is not known but it's over 1000 they estimate of just chinese laborers. at the peak there were 15,000 or so workers working on the rail. in fact the main suspected etymology of "chinaman's chance[0]" (aka no chance) was because they were the demographic that did the super dangerous work that killed 6% on the low end. The construction was also not one large project but two large projects constructed in parallel and the blasting/excavating was done ahead of the time. Sure they could lay down 10 miles of track a day on open plains but the hard work was through the mountains and that's the stuff that slows the construction down like if you were to build 22 miles of track in a heavily populated area with land already claimed by other entities and having to deal with easements and other legal battles + logistics. Nitroglycerin was used in large quantities on the central pacific railroad construction and were predominantly chinese laborers whereas the union pacific was more irish laborers. The central pacific rail owned their own TNT factory even. I am not sure what you are getting at; black powder was used but it certainly wasn't the only thing in use especially in the west. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman%27s_chance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman%27s_chance

WalterBright 5y ago
"At the tunnels, especially Summit Tunnel, the Chinese were using great amounts of black powder, up to five hundred kegs a day." "The CP found that, when they got to drilling holes of fifteen to eighteen inches into the granite, poured in the liquid nitroglycerin, capped the hole with a plug, and fired it with a percussion cap, the nitroglycerin did a far better job than powder. The work progressed at nearly double the speed, and the granite was broken into far smaller pieces. But the accidents proved too much. In one, after a number of charges had been set off simultaneously, a Chinese worker hit a charge of nitro that hadn't exploded with his pick. It exploded and killed him and the others working near that spot. Strobridge declared, "Bury that stuff." Crocker said to get it out of there. And even though Nobel perfected dynamite in 1866, it was never tested or used by the CP. In 1867, the CP ignored the dangers and did make and use its own nitroglycerin, but except at Summit Tunnel did not make a practice of it." "Nothing Like It In The World", Ambrose, pg. 200-201 I'm not just quoting the book, I read the whole thing. It's really a great story.

WalterBright 5y ago

"At the tunnels, especially Summit Tunnel, the Chinese were using great amounts of black powder, up to five hundred kegs a day." "The CP found that, when they got to drilling holes of fifteen to eighteen inches into the granite, poured in the liquid nitroglycerin, capped the hole with a plug, and fired it with a percussion cap, the nitroglycerin did a far better job than powder. The work progressed at nearly double the speed, and the granite was broken into far smaller pieces. But the accidents proved too much. In one, after a number of charges had been set off simultaneously, a Chinese worker hit a charge of nitro that hadn't exploded with his pick. It exploded and killed him and the others working near that spot. Strobridge declared, "Bury that stuff." Crocker said to get it out of there. And even though Nobel perfected dynamite in 1866, it was never tested or used by the CP. In 1867, the CP ignored the dangers and did make and use its own nitroglycerin, but except at Summit Tunnel did not make a practice of it." "Nothing Like It In The World", Ambrose, pg. 200-201 I'm not just quoting the book, I read the whole thing. It's really a great story.