The Golden Spike

Glenns Ferry, ID to Brigham City, UT

(sightseeing)

November 4, 2016 - November 6, 2016

We stopped on our way to Salt Lake City at Brigham City in order to visit Promontory Summit, the site where the first transcontinental railroad was completed.  At the time (May 10, 1869) a symbolic golden railroad spike was driven into the last railroad tie to celebrate the completion of the project.  It changed the west forever, opening it to hordes of people looking to make their lives there. Nothing was ever the same again.

The symbolic tie that joined the two railroads into one.
This tie is far to pristine to be the original but you get the idea.

The railroads were built mainly by two different companies - The Central Pacific RR and the Union Pacific RR.  The Central Pacific started from Sacramento and worked eastward.  The Union Pacific started in Council Bluffs, Iowa (just east of Omaha, NE) and worked west.  Each railroad was granted substantial loan and land subsidies for every mile of track they laid.  In the end they laid 1,907 miles of track between 1863 and 1869.  They even laid over 200 miles of parallel track near Promontory Summit because they hadn't agreed on where the two lines should meet! 

This marker originally sat at the actual spot where the two railroads were joined.

I found the following information really interesting and thought provoking:

• The Central Pacific workers were mostly Chinese while the Union Pacific workers were mostly unemployed Irish, German and Italian immigrants.



This natural limestone arch (formed millions of years ago when this area was covered by low
lying seas) is a memorial to the Chinese workers who built the Central Pacific portion of the RR.

• The Central Pacific had to build the railroad through the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains - building tunnels through solid granite they sometimes only advanced 8 inches a day.  The Union Pacific bypassed the Rocky Mountains by using a route through what is now Wyoming.
• The rails were each 30 feet long and weighed 560 pounds each.  That works out to about 172 rails per mile.
• 10 spikes were used per rail (1720 spikes per mile)
• The rails were bent as needed using sledge hammers
• 2500 railroad ties were used for every mile of track.  The Central Pacific built lumber mills in the Sierra's where they turned out milled ties of exact proportions.  The Union Pacific used rough hewn ties from wood obtained in the east.

Rough hewn ties used by the Union Pacific RR.

2500 ties and 172 rails were used per mile!

• Although both companies had to transport all the necessary materials to their work sites, the Central Pacific had to first ship all it's rails, spikes, connectors, bolts and locomotives round Cape Horn and up to San Francisco before they could haul it to the worksite.
• Various types of crews worked on the project.  Surveyors who decided the route worked 100's of miles ahead of the other crews.  They were responsible to make sure the grade of the bed was no more than 2% up or down.  The next group prepared the route and built the grades by either cutting through hills (or mountains) or by filling in ravines.  They also built trestles across ravines when necessary.  Finally there were the crews who actually laid the ties and tracks. 

This shows two ways the railroad bed was kept at a 2% grade.
If a hill was in the way they cut through it as seen on the far left edge of the picture.
Ravines were handled by filling in the distance with rocks and soil or by building
trestles to bridge the distance.  All the trestles they built in this area were salvaged
for the lumber.  In the distance is the great Salt Lake Valley.

• The second transcontinental telegraph line was also strung alongside the tracks as they went.

A second telegraph line ensured that communications could
get to the constructions sites and eventually across the nation.

Two trains, one from each end, met on Promontory Summit on the day the final spike was pounded in.  Sadly, each was later scrapped for money (about $1000).  Two exact replicas were later commissioned and are now housed at the site.  They fire them up in the summer months but in the winter they stay inside for any needed repairs but the rangers lead regular tours to the engine house.

The Jupiter - a wood burning steam train that belonged to the Central Pacific RR.

The 119 - a coal burning steam train which belonged to the Union Pacific RR.