On May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point Utah, Leland Stanford joined the rails of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroad with a 17.6 karat gold spike. For the first time, the new rails connected the United States, changing how Americans lived.

***A new cover for Irish Luck, Chinese Medicine..***

As I gathered information about Irish and Chinese characters who bridged the racial and cultural tensions to build the railroad, I wished I we knew more about their daily lives. More primary research is coming from Stanford University’s The Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project that “seeks to give a voice to the Chinese migrants whose labor shaped the physical and social landscape of the American West.” Learn more here.