Transcontinental Railroad at 150 - Photos

[Corbs]

My Dad sent me this article, some rather nice photos to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the USA Transcontinental Railroad.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/feb/06/the-transcontinental-railroad-at-150-in-pictures?

[F-UnitMad]

The comment to the last photo says it all about the importance of Railroads to the United States:-

 

"Travel from New York to San Francisco was reduced from six months to 10 days, and at 10% of the cost."

[pH]

The February 2019 edition of “Trains” has an article discussing something I had never heard of before. This is a claim that the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory on May 10, 1869 did not complete the first transcontinental railroad. Railroads had been built from the east coast of the USA to the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers but, until March 22, 1872, passengers travelling further west on the Union Pacific/Central Pacific route had to cross the Missouri River from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Omaha, Nebraska by ferry. Once a bridge between these two places was opened, it was then possible to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific entirely by rail along this route.

 

However, as of August 15, 1870, it had been possible to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific entirely by rail by another route. Starting from Kansas City, where there was a bridge completed across the Missouri River in 1869, the Kansas Pacific ran west to Denver, where it connected with the Denver Pacific. That ran north to Cheyenne, where it connected with the completed Union Pacific/Central Pacific route to the west coast. The last spike on that route was driven at Comanche Crossing (now Strasburg) on the Kansas Pacific on August 15, 1870, completing the first unbroken rail route across the USA.

 

Apparently, Union Pacific, who now own the Kansas Pacific route, marked this with a memorial at the site on the centenary of that 'last spike' ceremony.

[NickBrad]

Wow, that rewrites the history a little, Promontory being lauded as the first Transcontinental railroad and I, like many others i suspect are unaware of the truth, (or falsehood,) of this.

[dave1905]

During the mid 1800's the Dept. of the Army sent out teams of surveyors to scout 5 possible routes for a transcontinental railroad.  The Secy of War preferred the southern route, from New Orleans to roughly Los Angeles because it was the shortest.  The IC was one of the largest railroads in the Midwest.  A noted railroad builder was completing a line across Iowa to Council Bluffs.  The IC sent out a lawyer to negotiate buying the line he was building.  The lawyer asked the builder what he thought the best route was, he said the route west along the Platte River would be his route of choice.

 

In 1861, the Civil War began.

 

The Secy of the War who wanted to build along the southern route was named Jefferson Davis and after 1861 was no longer employed by the US, and his preferred route was no longer in "US" territory.

The lawyer for the ICRR was named Abraham Lincoln and he was employed by the US.

The railroad builder was named Grenville Dodge and he did in fact build a railroad west along the Platte River.

Edited June 16, 2019 by dave1905