It's Yang and Foshan's first day working on a railroad crew boring drill holes and blasting through granite rock at Donner Summit for the Central Pacific Railroad.
Bolin is assigned to train them, but Bolin has a problem. He sees Jaingshui (Chinese...
From 1864 - 1869 Charles Crocker hired approximately 10,000 Chinese workers to blast tunnels through Donner Summit. The rock - granite - is one of the hardest materials on Earth. Hundreds of barrels of blasting powder were used to make inches of progress each day. A shaft was built in the middle of Tunnel #6 (the most difficult) so four faces could be worked on at once. The entry point of this story is when the CPRR switched from black powder to nitroglycerine. A more volatile substance, but one that moved more rock.
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The shrill scream, erupting suddenly in the darkness, sent prickles scuttling up their spines. Bolin's panic attack at the tunnel's mouth made them late for their shift. Now they were alone, stumbling over rubble, feeling their way to the work site.
According to Bolin, the ceiling was crawling with Jainghsui (Jang-sure).
"I've got you," Yang said, gripping his arm above the elbow, squeezing like a vice.
"They're watching!" Bolin shook his head as if he were trying to loosen clay marbles inside. Lurching forward, he broke Yang's hold.
It was Yang and Foshan's first day working in tunnel number six. Bolin had been here for a month. He was taller and more muscular than most of his countrymen. Once he started hammering a borehole, Bolin could do it in half the time as anyone else. The problem was getting him into the tunnel.
Author's Note:
Panic attacks? Heebie Jeebies? Afraid of the dark? These young men, mostly in their late teens and early twenties, must have had to face many fears to do their jobs.
When hiking through the 1,600 feet of tunnel, noticing traces of excavation handwork and the soot-marks left by steam engines, there comes a point where it gets VERY creepy! Sound distorts and the darkness feels like its breathing.
Most frightening of all is the ceiling shaft. By estimating the center point and shining a bright light straight up every few steps, it can be found, capped, now, from the top.
When workers were digging it, they were lowered into the hole to chisel and set charges. Once fuses were lit, they had to trust that their coworkers would pull them out in time!
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