2. At one time in the 1800's, almost one in five Chinese in America was employed on the same project. What was that project?

Correct!

The correct answer is (b) the Transcontinental Railroad. Starting around 1865, approximately 11,000 Chinese men were recruited in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, mustered into work-gangs at the docks, and then ferried to the California Sierras to shovel and haul away dirt and rock. As the railroad magnate Leland Stanford wrote at the time, "If it weren't for the Chinese we could not be building this railroad."
Video: Building the Railroad - 56k | 220k

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Tunnel Number 3 in Upper Weber Canyon, California. Photo Credit: Courtesy of James P. Crain