Stanford Professor Gordon Chang, co-director of the project, shared research findings at the university night with about 60 attendees, and elaborated on the important role early Chinese immigrants played in helping the US lay the foundation for one of its most important infrastructures. "This project aims at recovering the experiences of (Chinese) railroad workers who came to the US, and knowing about how they lived and worked; how they suffered and triumphed over adversity," Chang told China Daily. "The public may know the involvement of Chinese railroad workers in building this incredible infrastructure, but don't know about their lives. They have never received the attention they deserve." From 1865 to 1869, 10,000 to 15,000 Chinese immigrants were involved in building what would become the first transportation network to connect the entire US. Opened in 1869, the railroad revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West by bringing the Western states into the whole country and making transportation much quicker and cheaper.