With the Union asunder and in the midst of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln recognized that the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad was not a side project to be put aside and left dependent upon the outcome of the war. It was a task that defined the full potential of a unified nation. It would be started despite the war and stand as the restored Union’s first great accomplishment after the war.
A nation set to burst forth on the world was foreshadowed that day. Mian Situ’s Golden Spike Ceremony places us in the middle of that historic moment on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit in what was known then as Utah Territory. The railroads, which represented the day’s apex of progress and technology, joined the nation.The diverse melting pot of peoples that would make the United States so great conceived, financed and literally with their hands, hewed out of the North American soil this vital commercial artery.They gathered around as Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad, drove the final spike that officially joined the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads.A single railroad tie-length apart sat the CP No. 60 “Jupiter”
(blue) and the UP No. 119 (red). It is said that during the ceremony itself, the crowd was so thick that photographers could not get close enough to get a clear shot.
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