Tracklaying race of 1869 participant Central Pacific Railroad
The tracklaying race of 1869 was an unofficial contest between tracklaying crews of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, held during the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. The competition was to determine who would first reach the meeting place at Promontory, Utah. Starting in 1868 the railroad crews set, and subsequently broke, each other's world records for the longest length of track laid in a single day. This culminated in the April 28, 1869 record set by Chinese and Irish crews of the Central Pacific who laid 10 miles 56 feet (16.111 km) of track in one day. That record was again broken by approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) in August 1870 by two crews of the Kansas Pacific, working from opposite ends of the same track.History
Rivalry
In July 1866, the Pacific Railway Act was amended, authorizing the Central Pacific (CP) to build east until it met the line being constructed by the Union Pacific (UP). The amount of land and money each railroad would be granted was proportional to the number of miles of track laid, causing the two railroads to start building in earnest.Their rivalry was notably unfriendly. In February 1869, crews for the UP and CP were grading parallel routes on the Promontory Range.: 303  At that time, the UP's primarily Irish crews began bullying the CP's primarily Chinese crews, first throwing clods of earth and escalating to a series of raids in which the UP crews attempted to dislodge the CP by attacking while wielding pick handles. Eventually, the UP crews began setting off heavy charges without warning, seriously injuring several CP workers; when the CP crews began grading at a higher elevation, they retaliated by setting off a surprise explosion, which buried several UP workers alive.: 303