When the Central Pacific Railway got the contract to complete the western leg of the transcontinental railroad in 1862, they faced the challenge of finding enough men to complete the enormous task. The gold rush was well underway, and the pressure to finish the job quickly forced them to look across the ocean to China for affordable labor.
Eventually, around 20,000 Chinese, almost exclusively men, moved to the U.S. over the next five years. Once they completed the job, however, it left an enormous number of immigrants out of work, which led to a complicated and often contentious relationship with the residents of their adopted country.
