The Final Leg

The train on the front of this post card is peeking out of one of the human-made wonders of Southern California. The wonder is the tunnel that made the final connection of the Southern Pacific Railroad possible, the San Fernando Tunnel.

Below is some history that explains the significance of the building of the tunnel. Its title is “1876: Southern Pacific Tunnels Through”. It was written by Alan Pollack, M.D. president of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society, and was found on this website: https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/pollack0710tunnel.html Work began on the San Fernando Railroad Tunnel on March 22, 1875. Former Central Pacific Railroad worker Frank Frates was chosen to supervise some 1,000 Chinese and 500 white laborers in constructing the tunnel. Frates and his workers faced a sandstone mountain saturated with water and oil, causing frequent cave-ins and loss of life. According to Marie Harrington in her 1976 pamphlet titled "A Golden Spike": "Frates' excavation was 22 feet high, 16½ feet wide at the bottom and over 18 feet at the shoulders, an angular arch being formed overhead. The Chinese worked as teams of two, one man holding the wedge in place against the rock while his partner swung the heavy sledge. The upper half of the tunnel was dug in advance of the bottom half for a distance of about 20 feet. Temporary timbers were placed as soon as the excavations were made; permanent timbers of Oregon cedar would be placed later. The lower half of the tunnel was dug by another crew of workers, the dirt being carried away by two-horse cars running on laid track. Day and night the work went on in 8-hour shifts, the Chinese being paid $1.00 per day and the white carpenters and mechanics receiving $2.60 a day for a 12-hour shift. A city of tents was located near the south end of the tunnel mouth for the workers." Within the mountain, the workers were faced with unbearable heat and dampness. Emma Louie of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California — who wrote about the Chinese contribution to the railroad in the 1976 Golden Spike Centennial Souvenir Program — quoted Remi Nadeau stating, "Oriental toilers fell at their work in regular succession and had to be carried to the sunshine burning with fever." Originally estimated to take two years to complete, work was begun at both the north and south ends of the tunnel. To help expedite the enormous task, surveyors determined a spot at the summit of the mountain from which a vertical shaft was dug to meet with the center of the tunnel. This allowed waste rock to be hauled out of the tunnel by means of a large cable drum and hoisting engine built in Sacramento. The tunnel actually took just over a year to complete. Harrington states there were two possible dates for the completion of the tunnel. The first version has Chinese diggers coming face to face July 14, 1876, with the opening of the tunnel just one-half inch out of line. Another version has Frates himself completing the tunnel in August 1876, removing the last cart of earth with his own hands. At any rate, the first train passed through this miraculous, 6,966.5-foot tunnel August 12, 1876. At the time of completion, it was the third longest tunnel in the United States and fourth longest in the world. The courageous work done on the San Fernando Tunnel culminated in the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Lang Station on September 5, 1876. A Golden Spike ceremony took place that day as the last tracks were laid. Unlike the ceremony for the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit in Utah, thousands of Chinese were in attendance at Lang Station. Remi Nadeau described the scene: "Clad in basket hats, blue denim jackets and trousers, and cotton sandals, stood along either side of the mounded right-of-way. Four thousand strong, they lined the roadbed in military file, leaning on their long-handled shovels, ‘like an army at rest after a well-fought battle."

It is obvious that that the card was published by the B.N. Company, (that is their logo in the top left-hand corner) but I know nothing about them. It was published between 1907 and 1915 - that is the Divided Back Era of post cards in the United States.