Building the Transcontinental Railroad: “Nothing like It in the World” by Stephen Ambrose

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Table of Contents

Adverse weather conditions
Poor infrastructure
Work Cited

The story is about the construction of the transcontinental railroad. It talks about the risk -takers who financed the railroad, surveyors, those who protected the constructors, and managers of the construction of the railroad. Mainly, the book discusses the workers especially the Irish and Chinese, who assisted in the construction of the railroad along the United State.

The workers underwent tough life during the building of the railroad. They lived under snow caves, which were not favourable for them. They lost lives in the caves especially during chaotic explosions and due to lack of food. People were prone to death since accidents like fire occurred frequently. As time went, technology was improving day by day and this was encouraging the establishment of railroads (Ambrose 20).

Late at 1850s, trading was extremely difficult. This is because there was no way to carry items. People desired and encouraged the construction of railroads. They laid poor run on tracks which were highly risky to the cars that moved on them. The cars that were present during 1850s got extremely hot during the summer season and cold during winter. They also often caught fire. This made transportation a hard thing to take place.

An engineer discussed the proposal on construction railroads with a politician-Lincoln or influenced the project. They both surveyed the route where to construct the railroads. During the construction, there were civil wars, which made it slow. This is among problems that risked lives of those who built and the engineers. The United States government had two companies-Union Pacific and the Central Pacific.

In conclusion, the construction of railroads had a lot of problems as discussed in the book. Examples of those problems are hunger, adverse weather conditions, poor infrastructure, and death (Ambrose 85).

Adverse weather conditions

These conditions vary from one time to another. It is a problem that interrupted with the construction of the railroads during 1860s, and is also an expected problem in today’s constructions. Snow was a serious problem that made construction of railroads terribly hard. Climatical changes especially winter was the worst part of building of railways. This is because when workers dug tunnels, they could find them filled with snow the following day.

Getting rid of it was the hardest task. Today, there are parts of the world that face this problem of snow during the winter season. They receive hails which affect transport seriously. Rain is a weather condition that affects construction of buildings and roads. When it rains during construction, workers are not able to go on with the building.

Construction of roads becomes an ugly scene when it rains. This is because there are furrows dug and they are full of water. The water-filled furrows are extremely risky for human beings especially during the night. This problem affected the workers who helped in construction of railroads and to those involved in construction even in today’s world.

Dry conditions are also a problem to constructors. Construction of buildings is the most affected area by sun. When workers leave buildings on construction under ultra hot sun, they end up having cracks which can lead to their break down. The work of re-building leads to excessive spending of money. This is a problem expected to be encountered in today’s constructions.

Poor infrastructure

Snow could cause movement exceedingly hard during winter since it covers the ground. During the 1860s, there were poor roads. The workers did not get access to raw materials for railroads construction on time. This could make it even hard for engineers to go on encouraging this project.

This contributed to slow construction of railroads. Sometimes, the surveyors got routes to construct railroads which were extremely difficult to pass through. These places were very hard to take raw materials. Still, constructions taking place nowadays have poor infrastructures, and it is becoming a serious problem in construction. In remote areas, there is an expectation of this problem to face constructions since roads are exceptionally poor.

They end up taking a lot of time to be completed. Also, the constructions end up stopping due to lack of raw materials. This can lead to a decline in the growth of the economy. Poor infrastructures can also lead to lack of development especially in remote areas and the places which encounter snow- caps.

These problems continue facing us even now because of lack of enough money to use technology. They all do not support any growth of the economy. Technology is improving each and every day that passes. The only unfortunate thing about it is that, it is terribly expensive to make use of it.

To avoid these problems in today’s world, people should encourage authorities in their states, and countries look for money, and provide for buying transporters like tractors to reach places at different conditions (adverse or favourable). This would help to improve development in today’s societies. This will show the difference between today’s way of doing things and that of 1860s.

Work Cited

Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing like it in the world: the men who built the transcontinental railroad, 1863-1869. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print

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Building the Transcontinental Railroad: “Nothing like It in the World” by Stephen Ambrose

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