Andrew Onderdonk circa 1880

Andrew Onderdonk (30 August 1848 – 21 June 1905) was a construction contractor who worked on several major projects including the San Francisco seawall in California and the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia.He was born in New York to an established Dutch family. He received his education at the Troy Institute of Technology. He married Sarah Delia Hilman of Plainfield, New Jersey. After starting his career surveying townsites and roads in New Jersey, he headed west to work as a general manager for financier Darius Ogden Mills on several engineering contracts. Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... Year 1848 (MDCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... In large construction projects, such as skyscrapers, cranes are essential. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Seawall protecting homes from storm waves and beach erosion. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... An eastbound CPR freight at Stoney Creek Bridge in Rogers Pass. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo - Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 36 - Senate seats 6 Confederation July 20, 1871 (6th province) Area Ranked 4th - Total 944,735 km... NY redirects here. ... Map of Plainfield in Union County Plainfield is a City in Union County, New Jersey, United States. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... Surveyor at work with a leveling instrument. ... Financier (IPA: /ËŒfi nãn ˈsjei/) is an elegant term for a person who handles large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. ... Engineering is the design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ...

San Francisco

His first major project was the San Francisco seawall. This project took three years and involved constructing ferry slips and seawalls for the San Francisco Harbour. A ferry slip is a specialized docking facility that receives a ferryboat. ... A harbor (or harbour) or haven is a place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored. ...

Canadian Pacific Railway

In 1879, he won a series of contracts to build the western section of what is now the Canadian Pacific Railway. Working directly for the Canadian government, he built the 127 mile section from Vancouver to Savona (near Kamloops). When those sections were complete he continued building eastward under contract with the Canadian Pacific Railway until he ran out of rail in Eagle Pass in 1885. 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. ... Bold text The Canada wordmark, used by most agencies of the Canadian federal government. ... This article refers to the city in British Columbia, Canada. ... Savona is a small community at the west end of Kamloops Lake History Savona was originally located on the north shore of Kamloops Lake, where it was the end of the stagecoach line. ... Kamloops is a city in south central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River and near Kamloops Lake. ... For the city by the same name in Texas, see Eagle Pass, Texas Eagle Pass is a 550 m (1,804 ft) mountain pass through the Gold Range of the Monashee Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Onderdonk and his wife, moved to Yale, British Columbia to supervise the construction. Yale was the head of navigation for steamships on the Fraser River and very near the starting point for his first contract at Emory's Bar. It was not until 1882 that the contract was let for the section between Yale and Port Moody. Front Street, Yale, British Columbia circa 1882 during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. ... Fraser River watershed The Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, Canada, rising near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for 1400 km (870 mi), into the Pacific Ocean at the city of Vancouver. ... Year 1882 (MDCCCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Chinese workers

One of the more controversial aspects of Onderdonk's work in British Columbia was his use of Chinese navvies. From Emory's Bar to Savona, the railway had to be built through the Fraser Canyon with immense cliffs requiring extensive and expensive tunnelling. Against the wishes of much of the white British Columbia population, he got permission to import Chinese workers from both California and China. Along with widespread racism, the white population feared wage decreases and job loss because of the Chinese workers. Onderdonk told the government that if he could not use Chinese workers, the railway could not be built. Navvy is a shorter form of the word navigator and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects. ... View of Fraser Canyon near Fountain, BC View of Fraser Canyon looking upstream from Fountain, B.C. The Fraser Canyon is a stretch of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains enroute from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser... A disused railway tunnel now converted to pedestrian and bicycle use, near Houyet, Belgium A tunnel is an underground passage. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · The Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Ku Klux Klan Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights LGBT rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Feminism Mens...

Historians estimate he brought in several thousand Chinese from China and many more thousand from California. The Chinese workers were always kept on crews separate from the white workers and often given the most dangerous jobs including the tunnel blasting using the highly unstable nitroglycerin explosive. Many Chinese were killed in accidents or died of scurvy during the winter, though part of the blame for the scurvy lies with the workers' dietary reliance on rice. Unlike the white workers, injured Chinese workers were not provided access to the company hospital and were abandoned to the rest of the workers to help. Discrimination and racism led to fights between the Chinese workers and the white workers, including white foreman of the Chinese crews. Generally the Chinese were seen by management as efficient, hard working and well behaved workers. Nitroglycerin (NG), also known as nitroglycerine, trinitroglycerin, and glyceryl trinitrate, is a chemical compound. ... Preparing C-4 explosive This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... Scurvy (N.Lat. ... Species Oryza glaberrima Oryza sativa Brown basmati rice Terrace of paddy fields in Yunnan Province, southern China. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Mens rights Childrens rights · Youth... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · The Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Ku Klux Klan Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights LGBT rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Feminism Mens...

Canadian Pacific contracts

When Onderdonk finished the five government contracts, he undertook contracts directly with the Canadian Pacific Railway to build eastward to meet the track being built from the east. Unlike the section in the Fraser Canyon, the section east of Savona was much easier to build. The route followed the south shore of Kamloops Lake, through the city of Kamloops, then along the South Thompson River. The line generally follows the shore of Shuswap Lake except for a short cut through Notch Hill. Leaving the lake at Sicamus, the line goes up Eagle Creak towards Eagle Pass. In the summer of 1885, Onderdonk's workers ran out of rail at a location that was later called Craigellachie. The railway construction from the east reached that point in November and the last spike was hammered home on November 7, 1885. The Thompson River is a major tributary of the Fraser River in the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. ... Craigellachie, BC Craigellachie (IPA: , but or can be substituted for ; is another common pronunciation) is a locality in British Columbia, Canada, located several kilometres to the west of the Eagle Pass summit. ... November 7 is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 54 days remaining. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ...

Other Work

After his work for the Canadian Pacific Railway, he continued doing railway and canal contracts, mostly in eastern Canada and the United States. In 1895, Onderdonk obtained a contract from the Canadian government to build the Trent Valley Canal in Ontario. Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Official languages English Government - Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman - Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 106 - Senate seats 24 Confederation July 1, 1867 (1st) Area Ranked 4th...

See also

• Canadian Pacific Railway
• Canadian Pacific Survey
• History of British Columbia
• History of Chinese immigration to Canada

An eastbound CPR freight at Stoney Creek Bridge in Rogers Pass. ... Unidentified engineers of the Canadian Pacific Railway Survey, 1872 The Canadian Pacific Survey or Canadian Pacific Railway Survey consisted of a large number of distinct geographical surveys conducted during the 1870s and 1880s designed to determine the ideal route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. ... British Columbia is the western-most province in Canada. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

References

• Gibbon, John Murray (1935). Steel of Empire: The Romantic History of the Canadian Pacific, the Northwest Passage of Today, pp. 185. McClelland and Stewart, Toronto.
• Innis, Harold A. (1923). A History of the Canadian Pacific Railway, pp. 88. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto.
• Onderdonk's Way at The Kamloops Art Gallery
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online