When East Meets West: The Final Spike of the Transcontinental Railroad

150 years ago today – May 10, 1869 – “The Last Spike” was run on America’s first transcontinental railroad. That last spike was made of gold so anyone could tell it was important, but there was a lot more to be excited about.

What railways can do for you

Before the transcontinental railroad, the journey from the east to the west coast took many moons and cost at least $ 1,000 (this is almost $ 20,000 today). If you’ve traveled overland, bandits, bad weather, or unexpected hazards can land you in the mountains, and for various reasons – including Divine Anger – your group could fall over from thirst, hunger, or plague, leaving bones for strange rodents to gnaw on and to disperse. If you are on the water the trip would be long and you might get bored which is a burden.

After the nationwide railroad was completed in 1869, a trip from New York to San Francisco could be completed in a week for less than $ 100. You are free to spend the entire journey comfortably eating and sleeping, writing and reading love letters to your loved one instead of living harrowing stories of hardship and danger. Commerce benefited as well as passengers. (Think of all the freight!) Even fresh groceries could be transported on the railway line. At last the coasts were tied together.

If the transcontinental railroad was such a great idea, why didn’t they build one sooner?

First of all, the railway and steam locomotive had to be invented, which only happened in the 19th century. Then, when such a project was technically and logistically feasible, the states began their Great Schism that would lead to civil war; and various North-South debates about the fate of the West, the future of slavery and the railways paralyzed negotiations.

The great railroad race

The Civil War actually pushed the transcontinental railroad project forward, as it gave the Union the freedom to build whatever it wanted without worrying about the thoughts of the southern whiners. In 1862, Congress succeeded in forging the Pacific Railroad Act, which granted money and land for every mile of railroad that was built with the aim of an east-west link.

The two companies involved were Union Pacific and Central Pacific, which sped as many subsidized miles from Omaha and Sacramento respectively as they could build before the rails met. (It was a “race” because the total mileage is limited between two points, so an extra mile from Union meant one less to Central and vice versa.) The Union Pacific crews were comprised of Irish and German immigrants, civil war veterans, free black citizens and some Native Americans. The Central Pacific employed more than 10,000 Chinese employees willing to work for less money and in dangerous conditions – which was important to Central as they had to climb and storm their way through the sierras almost immediately after leaving Sacramento.

The tracks meet in Promontory, Utah

Congress made the stupid mistake of adopting a motivating rationality of the railroad companies, rather than just establishing greed, so that they did not dictate how, when, or where the rails had to meet. When the crews from Central and Union met in northern Utah, instead of immediately merging the lines, they began building miles of parallel classes, with each company hoping to get more miles and, with it, more reward money. With a kind of fatherly desperation, the Congress had to set a node; and they chose Promontory, Utah – a small tent town with railroad workers and prostitutes north of the Great Salt Lake.

Precious metals and fat railroad cats are good news

Since the rail meeting was such a significant (and publicized) national event, everyone felt it appropriate to celebrate with extravagant ceremonies. Of course, whenever possible, extravagance should involve precious metals, so four precious spikes were donated to adorn the final tie. There was an iron, silver, and gold tip from Arizona; a silver tip from Nevada; a gold tip from the San Francisco News Letter; and the crowning gold tip of David Hewes, a friend of Central Pacific magnate Leland Stanford (founder of Stanford University).

The Hewes Spike was the first to be made and it inspired the rest. When Hewes heard about the big event, he was initially disappointed with the lack of symbolic (and precious metal) items donated for the ceremony, so he got the ball rolling himself. In the end, Hewes had his own $ 400 worth of gold from his own treasure, which was poured into a point with each side engraved: two with names, one with dates, one with the motto “May God the unity of our land continue as the railroad unites the world’s two great oceans, “and the head with a simple statement:” The Last Spike. “

It wasn’t the last tip, in fact. The precious ceremonial spikes were carefully tapped into a ceremonial tie with a ceremonial silver hammer.

When the dignitaries (Central Pacific’s Stanford and Union Pacific’s Thomas Durant) tried real hammer blows to seal the deal, they both failed.

A spike was tied with telegraph wires so the whole nation could hear the hammer blows – something like a “live” broadcast, but with telegraph instead of television and no advertising – and the publicists made sure these were some good things. In addition to these taps, a one-word telegram was sent through the states: “Done”. And the nation rejoiced, coast to coast. But after all the pomp was done, the special spikes and sleeper were torn and some unknown railroaders drove normal iron spikes into a regular sleeper to complete the transcontinental railroad.

The judgment

“Never before in our history as a nation has there been an event that celebrated so warmly and with so little mental reticence,” reported the San Francisco News Letter. Most speakers shared this view. The problem was that the Chinese workers were rioting, other workers held Durant hostage in his palatial car while demanding unpaid wages, and of course that last telegraph only meant “Doom” to Native Americans, further compressed by the US were new belts and certainly had one or the other reservation.

All in all, it was a strange and powerful spectacle with the golden tip in the middle – a scene that could symbolize much more about eclectic America than these simple and straightforward ideals of industry and progress.

This post was originally published in 2009.