The Golden Spike—The Story Behind the Image

Looking West; Promontory Summit, Utah, U.S.
This is the site of the driving of the "Golden Spike" which completed the first transcontinental
railroad in the United States on May 10, 1869.

Here in the United States, at Promontory Summit, Utah, the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad came together on May 10, 1869 to complete the first transcontinental railroad in the United State. A golden spike* was driven into the last tie to commemorate the completion of this Herculean effort.

Thomas Hill's 1881 "The Last Spike" painting of the driving
of the "Golden Spike" at Promontory Summit, UT. (Source: Wikipedia)
You can see the large hill behind the locomotive as in my image above.

The transcontinental railroad fundamentally changed the country in a number of ways.  Freight and passengers could travel from New York to San Francisco in about a week, rather than months, either by ship around the tip of South America or overland by wagon.

The railroads provided the 19th century version of a "technology corridor" with towns springing up along the rights-of-way across the nation, bringing people, businesses, the telegraph and industry.

The railroad became the backbone of America which started the transformation of the west from a frontier to part of the rest of the nation.  It was also the beginning of the accelerated end for the lives and land of the Native Americans as more and more people pushed west, taking land as they moved.

Who was the President who sanctioned the construction of the transcontinental railway?  None other than Abraham Lincoln; another feather in the cap of our greatest President.

I stood on the spot where the two rails joined and made this photograph.  I suspect, looking west as I was, the landscape looked very similar to how it did in 1869.  In Thomas Hill's painting you can see the same large hill as is in my image.  I paused for a few moments as I made the image and thought about the huge ramifications of the place before walking away.

*There were actually 4 spikes, the most famous was one of gold, a second one of lesser gold, one of silver, and one a mixture of gold, silver and iron. so each responsible party could have one as a token of the event.
Here are their descriptions and origins according to Wikipedia:

• a second, lower-quality gold spike, supplied by the San Francisco News Letter was made of $200 worth of gold and inscribed: With this spike the San Francisco News Letter offers its homage to the great work which has joined the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

• a silver spike, supplied by the State of Nevada; forged, rather than cast, of 25 troy ounces (780 g) of unpolished silver.

• a blended iron, silver and gold spike, supplied by the Arizona Territory, engraved: Ribbed with iron clad in silver and crowned with gold Arizona presents her offering to the enterprise that has banded a continent and dictated a pathway to commerce.

                                                                                                             Source: Wikipedia

The famous "golden spike" as we know it was (14.03 oz.) 436 grams of 17.6 karat gold which would be worth $13,519.30 as I write this!  It currently resides in the Cantor Art Museum at Stanford University.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


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