Locations of the landing points/docks for the boats that carried Chinese railroad workers
I’m contacting you on behalf of Chinese Whispers, a community-based storytelling project about contemporary folk memories of the Chinese who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad and settlements of the American West. The project is funded by the San Francisco Foundation and led by Artistic and Project Director Rene Yung.
I’m currently looking into the diaspora of Chinese immigrants in California/U.S. during the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. I know San Francisco was a major disembarking point for Chinese who made their way to the railroad construction sites. Do you happen to know of the physical locations of the landing points/docks for the boats that carried Chinese railroad workers?
—Marcus Tolero, Project Associate, Chinese Whispers
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 11:28 AM
3 Comments:
We would be most grateful to learn about any surviving memories of the Chinese who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad that you can tell us about.
For information about the Chinese railroad workers on the first transcontinental railroad, see,
Chinese.
Links - Chinese.
Search CPRR Museum - Chinese.
The subject of the CPRR Chinese workers is difficult because there are no 19th century first hand accounts written by Chinese, and there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in recent publications. For example, people often misinterpret the absence of Chinese workers in the famous joining of the rails A.J. Russell photograph as being due to racial prejudice. Actually, the reverse is true! The famous photograph could not include the Chinese photographed during the ceremony in the earlier stereoview because it was taken just after the ceremony while the Chinese workers were elsewhere – in the Superintendent's car being congratulated and cheered by the CPRR management for their role in building the railroad. Another example is that the number of casualties due to construction accidents has likely been greatly exaggerated due to a single short Sacramento newspaper account which was contradicted by another Sacramento newspaper account published on the same day.
See,
Accuracy in writing about the CPRR Chinese workers.
Chinese workers and the famous A.J. Russell photograph.
Fudging facts doesn't promote tolerance.
Deaths of Chinese workers on the Central Pacific Railroad.
Don't know the landing points for the Chinese railroad workers, but likely the locations are inland from the current waterfront because San Francisco has been expanded with landfill consisting of 19th century wooden ships and later possibly the debris from the 1906 earthquake.
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