Ties in Utah

The day we camped in Utah (June 3) I set an early alarm as we wanted to drive north early the next morning.  We were heading to the Golden Spike National Historic Site and I wanted to be there when they opened--or actually a few before.  It was one of the many NPS sites I noticed were along our route during the trip.  I'm not sure if I'd ever been there before, but it is likely since my parents and I had driven through the area before.  I have quite a few scrapbooks that my mom made for me, but I haven't looked through most of them in several years, so I can't be sure if we went there or not (unless my mom reads this and comments).  To get to the site we had to drive on several back roads (but we didn't have to backtrack when we headed back towards Idaho.  On one road I was driving at the speed limit (55mph) when a bird ran across the road.  I was going fast enough that I couldn't really swerve and slamming on my brakes wouldn't do any good, so I ended up hitting the bird.  I looked into my rear view mirror and saw a plume of feathers spray upwards from the road.  I did hit my brakes, but didn't drive back.  I'm sure the bird was dead, and we didn't have any room to pack the bird to eat later like my nephew Mark would have done.

Joining the NationMay 10, 1869 the Union and Central Pacific Railroads joined their rails at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory and forged the destiny of a nation. Golden Spike National Historic Site shares the stories of the people and settings that define the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad.

--from NPS Golden Spike website

We actually did arrive before the site opened (at 9:00), but we made a stop at one location that was on the road in to the Visitor Center.  I can't find any pictures, but checking the map I can see it was the Big Fill/Big Trestle Viewpoint.  The crews actually graded past one another while the location of their meeting was being decided.  They never laid any track past each other, but there was plenty of parallel grading.

By mid-1868 Central Pacific crews had crossed the Sierra and laid 200 miles of track; 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 meeting place to be Promontory Summit.  On May 10, 1869, two locomotives--Central Pacific's Jupiter and Union Pacific's No. 119--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.  Central Pacific had laid 690 miles of track, Union Pacific 1,086.  They had crossed 1,776 miles of desert, rivers, and mountains to bind together East and West.--from Golden Spike NPS brochure

In front of the building was a Southern Pacific monument.  The rail laid through Promontory Summit wasn't used for that many years.  The lines came uphill through mountains to this location and it wasn't very efficient.  Years later rail was laid to the south and a bridge built across the Great Salt Lake at Promontory Point.  The below below is the original line while the red and yellow shows the new line that made the original superfluous.

When metal was needed all of the rail at the summit was actually pulled up.  This monument was placed at the site long before it was an NPS site and the some of the rail was relaid.

 We weren't planning on sending the whole day at the site, but I did want to catch the arrival of both steam engines.  The first thing I had to was to show my pass--I was really starting to enjoy showing that instead of paying at each site we visited.  I was excited to see a penny smashing machine and smashed a couple coins.  There weren't too many exhibits, but they were interesting to look at.  I didn't realize it, but there were four special spikes driven in right at the end (all of which were of course removed and replaced with regular spikes before they could be stolen).  You can read more about all four of these spikes by viewing this pdf on the NPS website, but here is a sample:

San Francisco contractor David Hewes, friend of Central Pacific President Leland Stanford, was disappointed to discover no one had prepared a commemorative item for the completion of the transcontinental railroad, which was scheduled to be finished on May 8, 1869. Unable to persuade anyone to finance the casting of a solid gold or silver section of rail, Hewes decided upon a more practical token. Using about $400 of his own gold, he had the William T. Garatt Foundry of San Francisco cast a golden spike.  The spike was 5 5/8 inches long, weighed 14.03 ounces and was made of 17.6 carat gold. Only about $350 worth of gold, however, was used to make the actual spike. The remainder was left attached to the spike in a large sprue. 

After casting, the golden spike was engraved on all four sides and the top. Two sides bore the names of railroad officers and directors.  Another side was engraved, “The Pacific Railroad ground broken Jany [sic] 8th 1863 and completed May 8th 1869.” The fourth side was engraved, “May God continue the unity of our country as the railroad unites the two great Oceans of the world. Presented David Hewes San Francisco.” The top of the spike was simply engraved, “The Last Spike.”

The rest of the exhibits covered details of construction of the railroad lines.

There were also a good number of artifacts from the camps that illustrated the different cultures involved.  Many Chinese laborers worked for Central Pacific.

Of course I also really enjoyed the model of the ceremony.

In the bookstore I even found a knock-off "Lego" train set for sale.  It was virtually identical to a set that Lego sold a few years ago--I actually have one, but they were very clearly NOT Lego bricks.

Directly outside the back door was a section of rail like that which was laid down during the original construction.  Two pictures of accompanying signs are below, on the bottom one you can see how the shape of rail lines have changed over the years.

The section of rail before you is original to the transcontinental railroad.  This type of rail is called "pear head" because a cross section of it resembles an upside-down pear.  Its unique shape was the result of heating and rolling together several bars of wrought iron.  Because of this rolling process, iron rail was comprised of many layers which made the rail much weaker than if it had been made out of one solid piece of iron.  Despite the pear shape design that was intended to help counter thsi weakness, the layers of iron made rail vulnerable to splintering under heavy weight.  For this reason iron rail was not very durable and required frequent replacement.
--from NPS signage (see picture below)

After taking a couple pictures I finally let Amy drag me towards the rail line.  It was here that the first engine would be arriving shortly.

After a short time a ranger began explaining about the trains that would arrive shortly--well train at first.


The replica of the Central Pacific's Jupiter would be the first engine to arrive on-site.


After the engine arrived and had backed up we were allowed to go over the track and walk up a platform behind the engine to get a close look at it.  Since both engines came from the same direction, unlike the original ceremony, the Jupiter had to back up to its site.

At this point I realized that my memory card was nearly full as I'd forgotten to take pictures off of it, and the video I'd just taken had filled it.  As I knew the next train would be arriving in not too long I snapped a few pictures of the Jupiter and then headed out to our car.  I booted up Amy's computer and pulled files off of my camera memory card so that I could delete several large files and be ready to take more video.  The arrival of Engine 119 did not disappoint.

I had more time and more space on my memory card after 119 arrived, so I took several shots of the engine's amazing details.

Looking around I had fun with a few shots like this one of the rails disappearing into the distance.

The flagpole line was held on by two railroad spikes driven into the wood.

It is always hard to get a good shot of a flag fluttering in the breeze.

One of the engines burned wood and the other burned coal--they left quite a bit of smoke in the air.

I'm not sure what plants these were, but they looked quite interesting.

~Matt

PS Did you know that our current time zones are due to railroad travel?

PPS Look at all of the album's nearly one hundred images in the slideshow below, or click on it to be taken to the entire album.  I just couldn't talk about each photo, or if I had I'd have needed quite a bit more time to write this blog, or would have had to split this into several entries.  It has already been nearly two months since the trip in question and I want to get these blogs written before I forget more about the trip than I already have.