James Harvey Strobridge

Construction manager of the Central Pacific, James Harvey Strobridge, was born on April 23, 1827 to an old New England family in Albany, Vermont. He had worked on the building of the Vermont Central Railway when he was a teenager and was promoted to foreman.  He then joined the Gold Rush in 1849, sailing to the West. Because of prospecting and other endeavors that failed, he went back to the construction industry and served as a foreman on the Placer County canal and on the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad. Afterward, he took subcontracts with Charles Crocker, the chief contractor, and soon became the manager of the entire construction program and the driving force that got the railroad completed. Strobridge was in complete charge of all grading and track-laying forces, and he was also responsible for managing the labor force at a salary of $125 per month, contracted with a couple labors firms, some of which owned by the white and some by the Chinese.  At first, he was opposed to hiring Chinese men, but soon recognized their valuable capacities and even had as many as 15,000 under his charge one time. Strobridge’s working style was to intimidate workers, and if it failed, he regularly fell back on physical violence. Neither he nor his men took any orders from the engineers.

詹姆斯•哈維•斯特羅布裡奇

詹姆斯•哈維•斯特羅布裡奇是中太平洋鐵路的建設部經理，他於1827年4月23日出生於佛蒙特奧爾巴尼一個古老的新英格蘭家庭。在他青少年時期就參與了佛蒙特中央鐵路的修建，還被提升爲領班。 1849年他乘船到達西部，加入了淘金熱。後來因為勘探和其他努力的失敗，又迴歸建築業，在普萊瑟縣運河和三藩至聖荷西的鐵路建設中擔任領班。後來，他和總承包商查爾斯•克羅克簽訂轉包契約，很快成為負責整個鐵路修建工程項目的總經理，他也是鐵路能夠順利完成的推進力量。斯特羅布裡奇完全控制著所有有關評級和鐵軌鋪設的工作，他的工資是每月125美元負責管理這些鐵路工人，他和幾家勞動力公司簽訂了合約，包括白人所有的公司，也包括中國人所有的公司。最初，他反對僱傭華工，但他很快意識到華工的價值和能力，並且能一次擁有15,000名工人供自己指揮。斯特羅布裡奇的工作方式是恐嚇威脅工人，如果失敗的話，他就會依靠暴力。他和他手下的工人都不聽命于建築工程師。