Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

1 FIRST AMERICAN TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROAD. 139 STEAM SHOVEL AT WORK, PROMONTORY POINT, SALT LAKE. “ overlap ” was some two hundred miles long, the Government stepped in, and decided that the rails should be joined at Promontory, north of the lake. May 10, 1869, was the great day in the history of the first trans-continental track. On that day a small excursion party came from San Francisco to witness The Last the> crowning ceremony of driv- Spike. . mg the last tour spikes, two of gold, two of silver, into the last tie—of highly-polished Californian laurel. Just be- fore noon the tie was brought forward and placed in position. At the stroke of the hour, after a short prayer by a clergyman present, the silver hammer dropped, and the signal was flashed over the telegraph to Eastern centres, announcing that the track was complete, seven years ahead of time. New York city rang the Old Hundredth on its church bells, and fired a salute of a hundred guns. Chicago paraded. Omaha turned out Cost and Quality. en masse. San Francisco, which had begun the celebrations two days too soon, made matters square by prolonging them for two days after the event. The first total cost of the joint railroads was officially returned at 115,214,587 dollars, 79 cents. As regards value for money, the location and construction of the Union Pacific portion were, on the whole, good. This was partly due to the fact that before the Govern- ment subsidies were paid the road had to be approved, and plans approved before con- struction began. The second condition in- volved some injustice to the engineers, who were more competent to decide what was the proper course to take in certain circumstances than were officials who entered the country for the first time when they came to inspect work that had been done. The suggestions made by the officials were often wrong. At their instructions the grade was levelled over