In this installation I pay homage to the story of the “Coolies” - a perjorative term used in describing Chinese immigrants whose work was critical to the Central Pacific Railroad.  In a letter to President Andrew Johnson, Leland Standford, governor of California wrote:

As a class they are quiet, peaceable, patient, industrious and economical.  Ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work required in railroad building,… With this large force the company will be able to push on the work so as not only to complete it far within the time required by the Acts of Congress, but so as to meet the public impatience. (P..111. Kraus, George.  High Road to Promontory.  American West Publishing Company, 1969.) 

The collective effort of the “Coolies” and their western counterparts enabled the progress of the monumental line that is etched in our landscape.  It stretches from the West Coast, over the Sierra Nevada range, to the driving of the golden spike in Utah.  Although the monumental exertion of countless laborers on the Great Wall of China was intended to protect an empire, walls are objects that separate and segregate.   The Transcontinental Railroad and the marginalized sacrifice of over twelve thousand Chinese Americans in its development, unifies and physically connects our nation.