Ten Mile Day and the Building of the Transcontinental Railroad

Challenged to lay a full ten miles of railroad track in one day in exchange for four times their wages, the Chinese men working on America's first continental railroad in 1869 face their greatest challenge yet.

Grade 4-6-- The day that 10 miles of railroad track were laid on the Union Pacific end of the transcontinental railroad was indeed a remarkable one for laborers, suppliers, and organizers. It was never duplicated. Other historians mention this achievement, but Fraser captures the action in brilliantly rendered oils. Her laborers look like workers--not just men standing around. In a few useful sidebars and in informative endpapers, she adds details that enlarge upon and enhance the text. For the full history of 19th-century railroad building--with its problems, politics, people--read Leonard Everett Fisher's Tracks Across America (Holiday, 1992). But Ten Mile Day is in a class by itself. It is a picture-book slice of American history that should pique readers' interest. --George Gleason, Department of English, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the context of building the entire Transcontinental Railroad, a detailed account of April 28, 1869, when--as the result of a $10,000 wager--Central Pacific crews laid a record- setting ten miles of track. In her well-researched text, Fraser incorporates fascinating detail concerning building methods, engineering challenges, and the people involved, while honestly addressing the prejudice faced by Chinese laborers and acknowledging the railroad's role in ending Native Americans' way of life. Making good use of the broad picture-book format, her realistic earth-tone paintings convey the action and a sense of the vastness of the scene and the enormity of the task; endpapers add a map and glossary. An attractive resource. Concluding note; bibliography. (Nonfiction. 8-10) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.