The Golden Spike, Promontory, Utah

 Just 30 odd miles northwest of Brigham City, Utah, lies Promontory, Utah, the site of the meeting of the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad on May 10, 1869. We had to visit.

The site is just a hop and a skip from California, but the 690 miles of track that the Central Pacific laid took longer than the Union Pacific needed to cross the plains from Omaha. 

The project was the largest single undertaking of the 19th century, and involved thousands of workers and millions of dollars. Most of the workers lost their wages in temporary towns along the railway.

Both enterprises faced challenging conditions. Tunnels, trestles and river crossings took the most time. While the Union Pacific was laying up to 10 miles of track a day, the Central Pacific was chipping its way through the California Sierra Nevada mountain range at a rate of 8 inches per day!

The rail line was completed after seven years of work. From the west, locomotives, rails, and spikes were brought from the east coast around the Horn. But, even so, the Great Event took place six years ahead of schedule. Interestingly enough, since the competitors were being paid by the government for each mile of track with cash and land alongside the tracks, and since no one had the foresight to tell the two sides where to meet, they passed each other and laid an additional 250 miles of track! At one point the two teams were laying track within shouting distance of each other!

When Promontory was finally designated as the joining place, a crosstie made of polished California Laurel was laid with predrilled holes. Four precious metal spikes were symbolically driven, a gold spike from California, a silver spike from Nevada, Arizona's gold and silver spike, and a second gold spike commissioned by the San Francisco News Letter newspaper. A special gold plated spike hammer was used and the tie was made by Strahle and Hughes, a billiard table manufacturer.

Immediately after the ceremony, the spikes and the ties were replaced by a conventional tie and three iron spikes were driven into place. A fourth iron spike was wired to the telegraph and a regular iron spike hammer so that when the last spike was struck, the Nation could "hear" the blows. Leland Stanford from California took a mighty swing at the spike and missed, hitting the tie instead. Then Thomas Durant from the Union Pacific took a feeble swing and did not even hit the tie! A regular rail worker drove home the last spike and the telegrapher sent the message "D-O-N-E" at 12:47 pm, Monday, May 10, 1869.

California's golden spike and Nevada's silver spike reside today in the museum at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Arizona's disappeared for a bit, then showed up in the Museum of the City of New York. The whereabouts of the second golden spike is unknown, but was probably returned to the newspaper that commissioned it and was most likely destroyed in the Great Earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, along with the Laurel tie that up till then was on display in the offices of the Southern Pacific Railway, the successor to the Central Pacific.

A portion of the gold used in the making of the Golden Spike was used to make four rings: one was given to Leland Stanford, one to Oakes Ames, the president of the Union Pacific, one to President U.S. Grant, and the last to Secretary of State William H. Seward.

Today the site is a commemoration of the immense effort needed to tie the country together, both figuratively and literally. Former Civil War enemies worked side by side, with immigrants and former slaves as well. 

Reproductions of Jupiter and 119 make ceremonial short trips for the crowd, belching black coal smoke and white steam! Jupiter, originally a wood burning locomotive since wood was plentiful in the west, and 119 from the east, a coal burner, were the centerpieces of the Golden Spike ceremony.

One of the engineers had to adjust the tone of the steam whistle.

Number 119, from east, was of a similar style, but with minor cosmetic differences.

A few more photos of the locomotives:

The Golden Spike and special commemorative tie are marked.

119 made it's approach to the Visitors Center with bell ringing and steam whistle blowing!

An American Flag with 20 stars flies over 119.

Ties used by the Union Pacific were hewn from any available timber found in the plains. They weren't nice and straight like the ones the Central Pacific cut from Sierra Nevada Douglas Fir trees.

It was beginning to get cold on this partly cloudy day, so we headed indoors!

I had to steal this photo of 119!

An auto tour loop on the east side of the National Monument provided a spectacular view of the Great Salt Lake Basin.

Dubbed "The Last Cut", this was the last obstacle faced by the Union Pacific, just miles from the Golden Spike location. All of the excess material was moved by hand, stacked neatly on the side with the heaver and larger stones on the bottom to stabilize the pile, and then tracks were laid in the cut. All of the iron rails were removed during World War II to be used in the war effort. The ties were removed and recycled into flooring, cabinetry, and artwork. This entire area was abandoned when a railroad was constructed across the Great Salt Lake, eliminating some 36 hours of train time from the northerly route that skirted the lake.

Thunder clouds were beginning to gather as we left the site. Beautiful!

Northrup Grumman has a huge testing facility in the hills east of the Golden Spike site. We checked out the tour schedule, but the program is currently closed.

A good day and a relief from rv travel!