Transcontinental Railroad

The classic photo of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. (Photo by Andrew J. Russell.)

On the 10th of this month, 1869, 145 years ago, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in Promontory, Utah.


Another view (looking east; Central Pacific’s “Jupiter” is at left).

Now that transcontinental travel is so easy, the significance of a transcontinental railroad isn’t much.
Before the Transcontinental Railroad, travel from coast-to-coast took about five weeks.
The Transcontinental Railroad reduced that to five days.
Now I can fly coast-to-coast in about five-six hours.
I could probably drive it in about two-three days. An Amtrak passenger-train might take three days.
The Transcontinental Railroad made cross-continent trade possible.
One could also say it united our country. Without it we might have ended up two countries: east and west coasts.
It also made trade along the way possible, trade with our nation’s interior.
Two railroad organizations completed the Transcontinental Railroad.
Central Pacific worked east from Sacramento, and Union Pacific worked west from Omaha, Neb.
Union Pacific still exists. Central Pacific  became part of Southern Pacific, which merged with Union Pacific not too long ago.
Central Pacific had the most difficult segment.
East of Sacramento one encounters the lofty Sierra Nevada mountains.
They could have taken an easier route up Feather River canyon, but that was prone to washouts.
So up and over the Sierra Nevada.
Plus the Sierra Nevada got a lot of snow in Winter.
Snowsheds had to be built, and a terminal at the top of the crossing had to be fully enclosed.
I remember a Southern Pacific passenger-train getting stuck in a Sierra Nevada snowstorm back in 1952.
Union Pacific had it easier. They took a route over the Continental Divide in Wyoming that avoids the Rocky Mountains.
Most of that route is still used, but parts were abandoned.
Union Pacific built bypasses later, although they could pretty well lay their original track right on the land without cutting or filling.
Union Pacific crosses the Continental Divide at aver 8,000 feet, but the approaches are gentle.
The Sierra Nevada was a struggle every inch of the way.
The alignment through the Sierra Nevada was by Theodore Judah, chief-engineer for Central Pacific.
He was also a major driving force for the Transcontinental Railroad.
It was he that got four merchants in Sacramento to build Central Pacific.
It was also he that persuaded the U.S. government to build a transcontinental railroad.
The Transcontinental Railroad was pretty much a government enterprise. It wasn’t private enterprise.
The government promoted a transcontinental railroad by granting vast tracts of land for the railroad to build on and sell.
CONSERVATIVES trumpet this as a triumph of private enterprise.
But really it’s not. It’s government largesse to attract promotors.
Giant grants of land for promotors to pig out on.
Private enterprise refused to build it.
With all the noise we hear about unfettered private enterprise, it wasn’t private enterprise that got the Transcontinental Railroad built.
The Transcontinental Railroad still exists, although of course other transcontinentals were built, including over the Rockies, and up Feather River canyon.
Union Pacific’s mainline out of Omaha is extremely busy, although the line over the Sierra Nevada is more secondary. It’s too difficult, and furthermore most railroad traffic comes out of Los Angeles and San Diego, not San Francisco.
Promontory was also bypassed. Southern Pacific built a long trestle over Great Salt Lake. It’s now a causeway, but a challenge to maintain because of washouts caused by wind and water.
Only a few miles of track remain at Promontory, and they don’t connect to anything. The track is only for a historical display memorializing completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Two recently-built steam-locomotives are on hand to re-enact completion.
The locomotives are Central Pacific’s “Jupiter” and Union Pacific’s “#119;” the locomotives that long ago touched noses with the driving of the last spike.
Of interest, the last spike was gold-plated iron — a completely gold spike was too soft.
And it was engraved with May 8th, 1869; the ceremony was delayed to May 10th.
The “last spike” was driven by Leland Stanford, one of the original promotors of the Central Pacific.
He missed, and hit the rail instead.
Supposedly a trackworker had to hammer home the last spike, although I’ve seen various recountings of the ceremony with pure-gold spikes dropped into a pre-drilled faux tie.
“Jupiter” and “119” are not the original locomotives.


Jupiter and 119.

They sit out in the middle of nowhere to re-enact a historic achievement.
I’ve seen it myself. Tiny threads out in the emptiness.
The interior of this nation is huge and vast.
Set off a nuclear warhead out there and it would look like a firecracker.
I noticed the tiny thread moving. It was a train on the Transcontinental Railroad.


(Photo by BobbaLew.)