Crash on Union Pacific Railroad, ca. 1890.

The railroad served its purpose of providing transportation, but it was neither well built nor safe. Workers died in boiler explosions, falls from moving trains and collisions. Some brakemen broke their necks on snow sheds with low clearance. The hastily built Union Pacific line needed to be rebuilt almost from the moment of its completion. Grenville Dodge later referred to the railroad he built as “two ballasted streaks of rust.”