Small tunnel with a large snowshed in front.
The dangers of construction in the Sierra Nevada were readily apparent. While working along the side of the mountain here, two workers were caught in an avalanche. Being on the side, they clung to the cliff face to wait for the snow to pass. Unfortunately the was really, really deep and they were found the next spring, still standing on the face of the cliff. Even so, the Central Pacific reported a relatively low 137 deaths working on the Transcontinental Railroad (compare to say the 112 official death toll on the Hoover Dam). Lurid stories about thousands of dead Chinese workers arriving in Sacramento appear to be caused by a confusion between the bodies of 50 dead Chinese workers being returned to Sacramento that somehow got amplified to 1200 bodies.
On the other hand, there's still a story among my people in San Francisco that after the railroad was built that the bosses put a bunch of workers on a boat and deliberately sank it so that they didn't need to pay them. There's no record of it.
Donner Pass, Truckee, California
Loading contexts...
