Legends of the Old West HELL ON WHEELS Ep. 2 | “Mountains to Conquer”
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May 28, 2025 The construction of the transcontinental railroad faced immense challenges, notably the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Chinese laborers undertook perilous tasks involving nitroglycerin to blast through rock. The podcast highlights the ambitious vision of engineer Theodore Judah and the struggles to gain backing from powerful financiers. It also discusses the deadly working conditions that led to significant snow-related disasters. The successful tunneling through Donner Summit marked a crucial breakthrough, facilitating federal funding for continued progress.
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Politics Enabled The Railroad
- The Pacific Railway Act and Civil War politics finally made a transcontinental railroad feasible.
- Thomas Durant exploited the Union Pacific contract for profit while Central Pacific took engineering seriously.
Baskets On Cape Horn Cliffside
- Chinese workers were lowered in baskets to chip a ledge out of Cape Horn's granite by hand.
- They worked without safety harnesses, risking plunges into the river below.
Engineering The China Wall
- Crews built a massive dry-stone retaining wall to support tracks without mortar.
- That wall, the China Wall of the Sierra, still stands and enabled the ledge route.