The Iron Dragon Never Sleeps (8 page)

“Cheer up, Winnie! You’ll like school, I’m sure.”

“Take care, Marjorie. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”

“Don’t forget to shave, Papa!”

Her father cupped his hand to his ear. “What’s
that?” he asked, smiling. “It’s hard to hear over the engine noise.”

“Never mind,” said Winnie. “Just be careful.”

The train shuddered.

“Let’s go sit down,” said Mrs. Tucker.

“I think I’ll watch from here,” said Winnie. “I’ll come in after we leave.”

“All right, dear. But just for a minute.”

The train started up.

Winnie took a last look at Cisco. The row of low buildings hadn’t changed much during her stay. And soon the railroad would be moving its supplies.

“To the other side of the mountains,” her father had said.

Farther and farther
, she thought.
And with so many miles to go.

Wasn’t that someone coming down the street? It looked like Lee. What was he carrying?

He seemed to be running for the train.

“Wait! Wait!” he cried.

The train was still moving slowly, slowly enough that Lee could catch it.

“What are you doing?” Winnie shouted.

“I have brought you something,” he shouted back.

He ran alongside the train car and handed her a package.

“A farewell gift,” he said. Then he fell back, panting for breath.

Winnie unwrapped the gift.

It was a kite made of red paper and wood, a kite shaped like a dragon.

“Thank you, Lee,” she called out. “It’s beautiful.”

He nodded and waved good-bye.

Winnie waved, too. As the train gained speed, she tied the string to the railing and released the kite behind the platform.

The red dragon twisted and turned in the rippling wind. Then its wings steadied, and it rose high into the air. There it stayed, the paper dragon above the iron one, proudly flying over the train tracks that ran west to the mountains and east to the sea.

T
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is a story set during the construction of the transcontinental railroad. Almost all the characters are fictional. The major places and events, though, are true. The town of Cisco was a staging point for the Summit Tunnel construction in 1867. It was the only time during those years that a mining engineer like Eli Tucker might have stayed in one place long enough for his family to come live with him.

For many years building a transcontinental railroad had been considered impossible. There were problems of transporting supplies. There were problems of assembling a work force. Most of all, there was the problem of crossing the Sierra Nevadas.

In the late 1850s, though, an engineer named
Theodore Judah surveyed a route through the Sierra Nevadas. Largely forgotten today, Judah laid the groundwork for the huge project that followed.

This project required thousands of workers, and the Central Pacific Railroad quickly ran short of men. It was Charles Crocker who suggested trying out the Chinese. He was one of the Central Pacific’s four owners. The other three were Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Collis Huntington. They provided the money and political connections the railroad needed.

Crocker himself oversaw the construction process. By 1867 Chinese immigrants made up much of his work force. They were paid less and treated more harshly than other workers. In protest the Chinese actually went on strike. This strike, in June 1867, ended a week later under the threat of heavy punishment.

Crocker and the track supervisor, James Strobridge, did not take criticism well. They never admitted taking advantage of the Chinese. Instead Crocker claimed (without proof) that agents of the Union Pacific Railroad had encouraged the strike. Crocker respected the Chinese at work, but he did not respect them in other ways.

He shared this attitude with most of his countrymen. Chinese immigrants received little credit for building the railroad. Contemporary reports were
quick to mention their unusual (for the time) taste in food or bathing habits. Yet their dedication and hard work went unmentioned.

The transcontinental railroad was finally completed on May 10, 1869. A gold rail spike was used to mark the final connection. Afterward officials of both the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad gave speeches. They were grateful for having reached such a milestone. They thanked themselves, and they thanked each other. They thanked God, and they thanked the United States government.

Nobody thanked the Chinese. Yet without their contribution—their energy, their reliability, their willingness to undertake dangerous and thankless tasks—driving in that golden spike would have been delayed for many years.