The Last Rail

Even with both companies closing in on each other, there was still no meeting place for the tracks. Grading crews from the Union Pacific started to see grading crews from the Central Pacific, and even overlapped each other! This was of course work of the stockholders wanting to get more money for those unnecessary miles. When Congress received news of this, they immediately called in Durant, Dodge, and Huntington to decide a meeting point, or else face penalties and future payments from the government. After an all night discussion on April 9, 1869, they made Promontory Summit their meeting place for Saturday, May 8.

  The CP arrived at Promontory on time, but waited for the UP's train for two days. A UP bridge near Devil's Gate was washed out and had to be reinforced. Even after it was strengthened, the engineer didn't want to risk his life riding his heavy engine on it. He instead pushed the passenger cars across the bridge, but then there was no engine to pull the cars along. This 48-hour delay postponed the meeting until the Monday, May 10.

  While the UP made it's way to Promontory Summit, the little town began for celebration. This included tents, and even some tents with wooden fronts. But the rest of the country prepared for much grander operations. The actual ceremony would begin by having workers bring down a laurel wood tie and having special spikes inserted into predrilled holes. Stanford would hit the first one in, however, he missed. Handing the hammer to Durant, he watched as his partner missed, too. To say there was laughter would have been an understatement. At 12:47 PM, a regular worker hammered in the last spike, and the telegraph operator signaled the rest of the country with three dots, in effect: "done."

  The nation erupted with celebration at the completion of the transcontinental railroad. These two companies had done an overwhelming amount of work, "the work of giants." It was the greatest man-made construction of the century. Two different worlds of America were finally connected. Trade was so much easier, taking a week instead of a six weeks or even longer. Manifest Destiny became vibrant in the minds of people, as many went to California and other states in search of their future. The railroad also did something that no other structure in the world did then. The transcontinental railroad linked the oceans, the nation, and the people.