By the 1850s, the railroad industry was growning so fast and the settlers moving west, the government came up with a plan to get the west connected with the east by rail. They offered large land grants and mileage bonuses for two companies, Central Pacific and Union Pacific, to build the railroad. The work was stopped during the Civil War, but when it ended the building of the track was started again with the Chinese workers for Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Irishmen in stiff competition. In fact, it was so great, the companies recruited armed bandits to go out at night and disrupt the competitors work. Even with these minor problems, the two companies laid 423 miles of track in 1868. In Europe, with their skilled workers, it took 10 years to produce this amount of railroad. In the latter part of 1868, the workers met at Promontory Summit, Utah. The mileage bonuses were so lucrative on the final stretch, that when they met, they just kept going parallel to each other f! or 155 miles, until the government intervened and forced them to join lines. On May 10, 1869, the Union Pacific's locomotive 119 met nose to nose with Central Pacific's Jupiter at Promontory, Utah, connecting the first transcontinental line in the United States. The Chinese and the Irish had a drink and shook hands to celebrate. I bet the Irish outdrank the Chinese. There are some railroad terms, such as "Caboose", that no-one knows where they originated. I wonder if they came from those Irishmen trying to talk to the Chinese after a round or two. LOL Red Anthony ese after a round or two. LOL Red Anthony