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Until the "Great American Desert" and
the Rockies were bridged, the vast western territories would be part
of the nation in name only. A continent-spanning railroad
would also bring more tangible benefits: It would boost trade,
shorten emigrant's journey, and help the army control Indians
hostile to white settlement. Anticipating great financial and
political rewards, northern, Midwestern, and southern senators made
their cases for locating the eastern terminus in their regions.
In California, Theodore Judah had 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 the Central Pacific to build a railroad
eastward from Sacramento, and in the same act chartered the Union
Pacific Railroad in New York. After the Civil War had removed
southern senators from the debate over eastern terminus location, the
central near the Mormon Trail was chosen, with Omaha as the eastern
terminus. Each railroad received loan subsidies of $16,000 to
$48,000 per mile, depending on the difficulty of the terrain, and ten
land sections for each mile of track laid.
The Central Pacific broke ground in January 1863, the Union Pacific that December,
but neither made much headway while the country's attention was diverted
by the Civil War. Investors could reap greater profits from the war,
and the army had first priority on labor and materials. So Central
Pacific's Collis Huntington and Union Pacific's Thomas Durant, exemplars
of the no-holds-barred business ethics of the period, visited Washington
with enough cash to help congressmen understand their problems. A
second Railroad Act of 1864 doubled the land subsidies, but little track
was laid until labor and supplies were freed at war's end.
Central Pacific crews faced the rugged Sierra range almost
immediately. While the Union Pacific started on easier terrain, its
work parties were harassed by Sioux and Cheyenne raiders. With eight
flatcars of material needed for each mile of track, supplies were a
logistical nightmare for both railroads especially Central Pacific, which
had to ship every rail, spike and locomotive 15,000 miles around Cape
Horn. Both pushed ahead faster than anyone had expected. The
work teams, often headed by ex-army officers, were drilled until they
could lay two to five miles of track a day on flat land.
Union Pacific drew on the vast pool of America's unemployed: Irish,
German, and Italian immigrants, Civil War veterans from both sides,
ex-slaves and even American Indians - 8,000 to 10,000 workers in
all. It was a volatile mixture, and drunken bloodshed was common in
the "Hell-on-wheels" towns thrown up near the base camps. Because
California's labor pool had been drained by the rush for gold, followed by
the silver boom, Central Pacific imported 10,000 Chinese, the backbone of
the railroad's work force.
By
mid-1868 Central Pacific crews had crossed the Sierra and laid 200 miles
of track, and the Union Pacific had laid 700 miles over the plains.
As the two work forces neared 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. Congress
finally declared the meting place to be Promontory Summit, where, on May
10, 1869, two locomotives 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. The Central Pacific laid
690 mile of track; the Union Pacific 1,068. They had crossed 1,776
mile of desert, rivers, and mountains to bind together East and West.
A visit to Golden Spike today offers a Museum where the tools and
artifacts of the railroads construction are on display, and of
course you don't want to miss the two working replicas of the 1860's
locomotives 'Jupiter' and '119'. These two locomotives are in
operation from May-Labor Day (Schedule subject to change please check
www.nps.gov/gosp. Outside the visitor center you can enjoy
two auto tours, the West Grade and the East Grade. There
is also a easy, flat 1.5 mile/2.4 km trail called the Big Fill Walk. Rangers offer
frequent presentations daily from May 31 to September 1.
Photo
of one of the many displays offered in the Museum. Taken By Utah Outdoor
Activities.
Every year on May 10 as well as every Saturday and holiday till Labor day the joining of the two railroads is
re-enacted (Check
www.nps.gov/gosp for updated
schedule) . The annual Railroader's
Festival is held the second Saturday in August, and the Winter Steam
Demonstration and Film Festival are the last weekend in December.
Golden
Spike National Historic Site is located 32 miles west of Brigham City on
State Routes 13 and 83. The visitor center is open and accessible 9-5
daily except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day. Slide
programs, films, and museum exhibits are available for viewing at the visitor center.
Picture
of the Jupiter. Taken By Utah Outdoor Activities
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