We woke to bright sunshine anticipating getting the rest of our chores done. We spent the morning getting caught up on everything and then headed to the Flying J 100 feet away to gas up. Then to the Wal Mart across the street to restock.
We finally got on the road around 1:30 pm to take in Golden Spike National Historic Site 32 miles away.
The Golden Spike National Historic Site is out in the middle of nowhere at Promontory Summit. The view around the site spans for hundreds of miles.
Shortly after America’s first railroads were operating in the 1930’s people of vision foresaw transcontinental travel by rail. The idea gained support as a national railroad system took shape. By the beginning of the Civil War the eastern states were linked by more then 31,000 miles of rail, more then all of Europe. None of this network served beyond the Missouri River though. It was thought that until the Great American Desert and the Rockies were bridged the vast western territories would be a part of the nation in name only.
In California, Theodore Judah had devised his own plan for a transcontinental railroad. By 1862 the young engineer had surveyed a route over the Sierra Nevada and persuaded wealthy Sacramento merchants to form the Central Pacific Railroad. That year Congress authorized Central Pacific to build a railroad eastward from Sacramento and in the same act chartered the Union Pacific in New York. Each railroad received $16,000 to $48,000 per mile depending on the difficulty of terrain.
Central Pacific broke ground in January 1883 and Union Pacific that December. Neither made much headway while the country’s attention was diverted by the Civil War.
No real progress was made until the second Railroad Act of 1864 doubled land subsidies, but little track was laid until labor and supplies were freed at the war’s end.
Central Pacific faced the rugged Sierra Nevada range almost immediately. While the Union Pacific started on easier terrain, its work parties were raided by Sioux and Cheyenne. Despite the difficulties both pushed ahead faster then anyone had expected. The work teams, often headed by ex-army officers, were drilled until they could lay two to five miles of track per day.
The Union Pacific drew on the vast pool of America’s unemployed: Irish, German and Italian immigrants. Civil War veteran’s from both sides, ex-slaves and even American Indians –8,000 to 10,000 workers in all. Central Pacific hired several thousand Chinese, the backbone of the railroad’s workforce.
As the two work forces raced toward each other in Utah, they raced to grade more miles and claim more land subsidies. Both pushed so far beyond their railheads that they passed each other and for over 200 miles competing graders advanced in opposite directions on parallel grades.
WHAT!!!! Why did this happen???? Once again because the government could not decided where the meeting place of the track should occur. Finally after paying all these men for the extra 200 miles it was decided to be Promontory Summit.
On May 10, 1869 two locomotive’s – Central Pacific’s Jupiter and Union Pacific’s No. 119 – pulled up to the one rail gap left in the track. After a golden spike was symbolically tapped, a final iron spike was driven to connect the railroads. Central Pacific had laid 690 miles of track, Union Pacific 1,086. They had crossed 1,776 miles of desert, rivers, and mountains to bond together the East and West.
Working replicas of the Jupiter and 119 are brought out on the tracks everyday.
Both are run by coal and wood so have three to four men working to get the engines out on the tracks.
Although the Golden Spike is not in place and is housed at Stanford University this rail signifies the joining of the two railways. A very interesting piece of history that changed our way of shipping supplies and travel.
Of interest is the fact that no matter where go in our travels we manage to find something or someone that connects Massachusetts with historical events in another part of the country.
Shovel used to build the railroad from the Oliver Ames Shovel Factory from Easton, MA.
Watch used to keep accurate time for the railroad from Waltham, Mass Watch Company.
After leaving Golden Spike we headed down the road hoping to tour a missile site that houses the largest solid rocket booster for the space program. As it turned out the instillation where the rockets are made is huge but we didn’t see anywhere to enter for visitors so we kept on going. I did manage to get a picture of the rocket out front as we drove by.
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