During the summers and nights of the 1860s in California, the crews that built the railroad connecting California with Utah to create the United States, a massive country from the sea to the shining sea, were able enjoy the mild weather until the winter.
The fewer workers there are, the colder it is. Sometimes too few workers mean no work is done.
The librarians pointed me in the direction of American history. It was in one of their books I read how railroad workers in California’s Sierra Nevada calculated the minute when Spring began after a killer winter.
During freezing cold days, some construction workers tossed cans of frozen normally liquid nitroglycerin to others without thinking about it, it saved steps and frozen “nitro” was safe. The liquid form was dangerous, as it could explode accidentally. The explosive was never thrown around by American workers. American workers didn’t like it anyway, they preferred dynamite.
The only way to cut/tunnel through the Sierra Nevada Mountains was by blasting.
Winter construction was affected by workers quitting rather than suffering. There was a solution needed. China!
As California Gov. Leland Stanford said, when asked if he meant it, that he co-founded the Central Pacific Railroad Company.
