The Transcontinental Railroad: The Gateway to the West (Milestones in American History)

120 Pages·2007·3.32 MB·english

by  Edward J.

Milestones
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Milestones

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The Monroe docTrine
The TransconTinenTal railroad
The elecTric lighT
The WrighT BroThers
The sTock MarkeT crash of 1929
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The civil righTs acT of 1964
Milestones

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american history
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The GaTeway To The wesT
edWard J. renehan Jr.
Cover: Workers celebrate after the final rail spike is driven into the ground at Promontory
Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869.
The Transcontinental Railroad: The Gateway to the West
Copyright © 2007 by Infobase Publishing
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Chelsea House
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ISBN 10: 0-7910-9351-4
ISBN 13: 978-0-7910-9351-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Renehan, Edward, 1956-
The Transcontinental Railroad : the gateway to the West / Edward J. Renehan, Jr.
p. cm. — (Milestones in American history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–7910–9351–4 (hardcover)
1. Railroads—United States—History—19th century—Juvenile literature. 2. Central
Pacific Railroad Company—History—Juvenile literature. 3. Union Pacific Railroad Com-
pany—History—Juvenile literature. 4. West (U.S.)—History. I. Title. II. Series.
TF25.U5R465 2007
385.0979—dc22 2006038870

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Series design by Erik Lindstrom
Cover design by Ben Peterson
Printed in the United States of America
Bang NMSG 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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c
onTenTs
1 Gold, Silver, and Iron Spikes
1
2 Two Companies
11
3 The Race to the Middle Begins
23
4 The Men Who Made the Railroad
34
5 Corruption
47
6 Union Pacific Progress
58
7 Tunnels, Deserts, and Prairies
68
8 The Great Race
81
9 Finale
92
Chronology and Timeline 104
Bibliography 108
Further Reading 109
Index 112

1
Gold, Silver, and
Iron Spikes
Today, an unusual park—the Golden Spike National His-
toric Site, administered by the National Park Service—is
located at what was once the town of Promontory, at Promon-
tory Summit in Utah, 32 miles west of Brigham City. It was at
Promontory Summit that—on May 10, 1869—two trains met
and several spikes (two golden spikes from California, one
silver spike from Nevada, one iron spike with silver and gold
plating from Arizona, and one simple iron spike that was left
in place thereafter) were positioned in a ceremonial railroad tie
to symbolically “complete” a marvelous feat of engineering.
The Transcontinental Railway, known in its day also as
the Pacific Railway, was the first to link America’s Atlantic and
Pacific coasts. Here at Promontory, the Union Pacific’s coal-
burning Engine No. 119 (aimed west) and the Central Pacific’s
wood-burning Jupiter (aimed east) touched cowcatchers—the
1
2 The Transcontinental Railroad
slanted metal frame at the front of each engine—to signify the
uniting of the country through the enterprising application
of industrial science. But today the two most important relics
of that historic joining of the continent’s eastern and western
shores no longer exist. Engine 119 went to the scrap yard in
1903, and the Jupiter followed suit in 1909. As of 1904, most
trains began avoiding Promontory altogether, after a new and
better adjacent line was launched amid easier country. Then, in
1942, the Union Pacific held an “Undriving of the Last Spike”
ceremony, immediately before ripping up 90 miles of track: all of
it destined for metal scrap to be used in the World War II effort.
This “Undriving” ceremony was an irony that no one participat-
ing in the grand events of May 10, 1869, could have foreseen.
California’s Premature Celebration
It was a little before 9 a.m. on the morning of May 10, 1869,
when the Union Pacific train pulled up at Promontory. “We
went over at once to greet them,” wrote one of the officials who
accompanied Central Pacific official Leland Stanford. “In a
superb piece of cabinet-work they call a ‘Pullman car,’ we met
[Union Pacific] Vice President [Thomas C.] Durant, of whom
we have heard so much, with a black velvet coat and gay neck-
tie, that seemed to have been the ‘last tie’ to which he had been
giving his mind, gorgeously gotten up. General [Grenville]
Dodge was there, and he looked like business. The veterans
[Sidney] Dillon and [John] Duff [both of the Union Pacific]
were there to give away the bride. General Dodge on the part
of the Union Pacific, and Edgar Mills on the part of the Cen-
tral Pacific, were appointed to arrange the preliminaries.”
Everything between the Central Pacific and the Union
Pacific had, for years, been the subject of jealous competition
and intense negotiation. Each firm had struggled at breakneck
speed to gain the most miles of track in the American West.
Starting from California, the Central Pacific had wanted the
place of meeting between the two companies to be as far east
Gold, Silver, and Iron Spikes 3
one of the prominent figures in organizing the construction of the
transcontinental railroad was leland stanford. the California native
served as governor of his home state from 1861 to 1863 and became
president of the Central Pacific railroad in 1861.