Talk:Last spike (Canadian Pacific Railway)/Archive 1
Latest comment: 16 years ago by Gcapp1959 in topic Chinese Railway workers not present
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| Archive 1 |
Chinese Railway workers not present
This picture CLEARLY does not show any Chinese railway worker as part of the "Last Spike". I'm thinking of mentioning this in the main article. Edson88888 00:34, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
- The Chinese were involved in building the line east to Craigellachie, under contractor Andrew Onderdonk. I wonder if Onderdonk was even present at the last spike - Van Horne said Onderdonk's government-built section was "the worst railroad engineering in the world", though ironically, on November 7, 1885, Van Horne said "all the work has been done well in every way" or words to that effect. And also, lest I be misunderstood, the Chinese workers worked hard, it was the designers and engineers who built a poor route west of the last spike - "too many trestles", "and the worst I've ever seen" (Van Horne, script line, TV miniseries, "The National Dream" (1974)). GBC 01:49, 7 November 2007 (UTC)