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Blasted rock
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<p> </p><p> </p><p>Just about any book on the Central Pacific RR will concern itself with blasting in the Sierra's; black powder and nitro pretty much defined the work.</p><p>Steam powered drills were available in 1868 when the Summit Tunnel was being cut, but for some reason the logistics just didn't work out. The Central Pacific was the last railroad built using only human labor.</p><p> Cutting that Summit Tunnel would have been one big job. The granite in that area is extremely dense and difficult to work. It's almost like flint, and sounds like broken glass when tossed in a pile. They resorted to nitro that had to be made on the spot because of it's unstable nature, and still removed only 8" per day of rock despite working it from four different directions.</p><p> Some revisionists like to claim the Chinese work crews were treated like slaves in this endeavor, but the fact is the Chinese invented gunpowder, they knew it, and they loved blowing things up.</p><p>-rrick</p>
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