The Golden Spike

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Today, May 10th, marked the 154th anniversary of the driving of the Golden Spike, the symbolic completion of America's first transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific RR had been building westward from San Francisco while the Union Pacific RR had been laying track westward from Omaha. 

They met in Promontory Summit, in what is now the state of Utah, where Leland Stanford - Gold rusher, robber baron, founder of his namesake university and railroad owner who served as both Governor and Senator to California - used a silver maul to drive a golden spike into a laurel tie as the symbolic "last spike" uniting the east and west coasts of the United States. He missed, which didn't actually spoil the celebrations around the country. (The spike was immediately removed, the laurel replaced with an ordinary rail tie, and the whole thing hammered together rather more expertly, probably by one of the Chinese workers who had completed the final track section.)

It was probably the country's first "mass media" event. Reporters followed the track laying  - in modern parlance, we might say they were embedded - and newspapers were kept up-to-date by telegraph offices close by. The Civil War, which had ended just four years before, had left the country exhausted, broke and bitter; this, in contrast, was a feel-good story everyone could get behind. Western Union allegedly attached wires to the ceremonial silver maul, so they could flash the news around the world the instant the blow fell. Considering that, maybe it's not surprising Stanford's aim was  little off.

Ironically - or perhaps not, this is America, after all - a new line laid further south made Promontory Summit obsolete for all main line trains in just 34 years. The whole historic rail section there was taken apart in 1943, the iron needed for the war effort. In a nice note, the Promontory residents held a ceremonial "undriving" of the actual iron last spike, and then erected a modest monument to the event. The famous event wasn't forgotten, though, and in 1957 Congress created the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Promontory, Utah. Rails were re-laid, and a single golden-colored tie was set on the original spot where the two lines were finally united.

Here's where I confess I know some of this and have an interest because my dad was a HUGE train guy. If you have a train guy in your life, you know what I mean. He always wanted to visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site and never did, so I've now added it to my own bucket list.

Rail workers Wong Fook, Lee Chao & Ging Cui in 1919

One final historical correction of interest: the original accounts and early memorials of the Golden Spike ceremony completely left out the more than 12,000 Chinese laborers - some 80% of the entire work force - who had laid track for over six years to reach Promontory Summit. On the 145th anniversary of the celebration, Chinese-American photographer Corky Lee gathered over 200 Asian-Americans, including descendants of railroad workers, to recreate the now-antique trains meeting face to face - this time, with the people who actually made it happen front and center. 

Dear readers, do you have a quirky historical event of interest? And do you have a Train Guy in your life?