May 10th of next month marks the sesquicentennial of
the joining of the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad at
Promontory Point, often known as the Golden Spike ceremony. Over the course of
several blog posts, I hope to share bits and pieces of this endeavor. I do have
a vested interest in the topic for several reasons. For one, my
great-grandfather worked for the Union Pacific Railroad as it cut its way
through Echo Canyon in Utah. Also, the history of the Central Pacific Railroad
plays a big role in the early history of California, my adopted state.
The
First Transcontinental Railroad,
known originally as the "Pacific
Railroad" and later as the “Overland Route," was a 1,912-mile
(3,077 km) continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that
connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha, Nebraska/Council
Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco
Bay. The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands
provided by extensive US land grants. Construction was financed by both state
and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds.
The Western Pacific Railroad Company built 132 mi (212 km) of track
from Oakland/Alameda to Sacramento, California. The Central Pacific Railroad
Company of California (CPRR) constructed 690 mi (1,110 km) eastward
from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. The Union Pacific built
1,085 mi (1,746 km) from the road's eastern terminus at Council
Bluffs near Omaha, Nebraska westward to Promontory Summit.
The
railroad opened for through traffic on May 10, 1869 when CPRR President Leland
Stanford ceremonially drove the gold "Last Spike. " which was later
often called the "Golden Spike," with a silver hammer at Promontory
Summit.
Historian
Stephen E. Ambrose wrote, “Next to winning the Civil War and abolishing
slavery, building the first transcontinental railroad from Omaha, Nebraska, to
Sacramento, California, was the greatest achievement of the American people in
the nineteenth century….”1
The completion of this railroad proved to be a
monumental feat that revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American
West. Where before, my pioneer ancestors traveled for months across the plains
to reach their destination, the trip on the railroad from New York to San
Francisco could be made in seven days. It used to cost about $1,000 (value of
that time) to travel by wagon and ox team from New York to San Francisco. Once
the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, the cost of a rail ticket was
$150.00 for first class and $70 for third, or emigrant, class (hard, narrow
benches set close together). Freight rates by railroad were far less than for
oxen- or horse-driven wagons, sailboats or steamships. Cross country mail that
once cost dollars per ounce and took months to reach its destination now cost
pennies and was delivered in a matter of days.
I will end with this quote printed in the Deseret News, the primary newspaper of
Salt Lake City, the largest and only city of any size between the Missouri and
California:
“The last tie has been laid, the last
rail is placed in position, and the last spike is driven, which binds the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans with an iron band. The electric flash has borne the
tidings to the world, and it now devolves upon us, the favored eye-witnesses of
the monumental feat, to enter our record of the facts…. Never before has this
continent disclosed anything bearing comparison with it. The massive oaken-hued
trains of the Central Pacific lie upon their iron path, confronted by the
elegant coaches of the Union pacific.
“Thousands of throbbing hearts
impulsively beat to the motion of the trains at the front locomotives of each
company led on majestically up to the very verge of the narrow break between
the lines where, in a few moments, was to be consummated the nuptial rites
uniting the gorgeous East and the imperial West with the indissoluble seal of
inter-oceanic commerce.”2
 |
| Golden Spike Ceremony Recreation - Ctsy Hyrum K. Wright |
My most
recent book, Virginia’s Vocation, is now available on
Amazon. In 1859, when Virginia, escorted by her older brother, Jefferson,
travel from Missouri to Ohio, the train that had almost reached St. Joseph,
Missouri was the most westerly point served by a railroad east of the Missouri
River. This was a mere decade before the east and west were joined by the
Transcontinental Railroad. To read the book description and access the purchase
link, please CLICK
HERE.
Footnotes:
1. Taken from
the Stephen B. Ambrose, Nothing Like It
in the World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 369-70. Reprinted in Museum Memories, Volume 1 (Salt Lake
City, Utah: International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2009), pg. 393-95.
2. Taken from
the Deseret News, May 19, 1869, 169;
Kate B. Carter, Our Pioneer Heritage
(Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1969), 12:285. Reprinted in Museum Memories, Volume 1 (Salt Lake
City, Utah: International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2009), pg. 393.
Sources:
Museum Memories, Volume 1 (Salt Lake City, Utah:
International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 2009)
Wikipedia
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