Donner Summit Historical Society Poster 2010

Our 2010 poster celebrates Tunnel 6, the longest of the original tunnels on the transcontinental railroad.

It was a race and the Central Pacific RR was losing. The Union Pacific had bragged that they'd get to the California State line, coming from the east, before the Central Pacific even got out of the Sierra. The Union Pacific would get rich.

It was the Sierra tunnels that were slowing things for the Central Pacific. To speed things along the Central Pacific began boring Tunnel 6 from two directions at one. That was still not fast enough so they sunk a shaft down the center (with the Blue Goose on top) and went from the inside out as well as the outside in.

It still took two years for Chinese workers working in shifts 24 hours a day to bore through the Sierra granite, one of the hardest rocks on the planet. To read about the amazing 19th century feat see our May - August '12 newsletters (link to the 2012 Heirloom page).