We've obviously seen many inspiring and beautiful parks and monuments along the way, but today we finally visited my most anticipated, way out in the desert of northern Utah. To me, it is one of the single greatest testaments to American ingenuity and accomplishment - the Golden Spike National Historical site, the point where the Central Pacific (from the west) and Union Pacific (from the east) railroads met in 1869 at Promontory Summit. The sheer magnitude of men and material, scarce resources in the middle of the Plains or Sierra Nevadas, and the engineering challenges for that era are astounding. Not to mention the depredations of Plains tribes irritated by the loss of timber and game, unyielding granite wherein cutting 8" was a good day and the Chinese laborers walked through tunnels burrowed in 40' of snow to return to their cabins, and the whole Civil War thing.
I could literally go on and on about standing at this point of historical significance, but Stephen Ambrose did such a good job in Nothing Like It In The World I should just recommend that and refer you to the photos below - will admit I shot more here than at Rushmore (am I weird or what?)... |
| Cut just east of Golden Spike - Ogden is just south of the snowy mountain on the horizon. |
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The Big Fill is located on the left and was determined to be far superior to the rickety trestle built from the end of where Kali is standing to the abutment across the creek...done by hand with mule-drawn carts! Each railroad was being compensated based upon miles of grade and track, and since there weren't an abundance of gov't inspectors out here, they just kept right on building grade, side-by-side, getting partial payment until the final meeting point was selected and a grade chosen. The two grades are visible going up the opposite hill (at the required 2%) with a large cut visible on the left and a less severe one just to the left of the sage brush in the middle of the hill.  |
This is a replica of CPRR's Jupiter engine, No. 60. Again, could fill pages with the info we received from the Ranger ... plus since the engines were in the shed for the winter, we got to see them up close and with all of the tools and parts the NPS uses to keep them operational. Oh, and found out you can volunteer, and if they like you and you work hard enough, you might end up shovelling coal as a fireman. Man.....
And this is UPRR's No. 119 which came from the east.
These are brake pads!!! Made of wood and turned against the steel wheels by brakemen from the top of the cars.
Pin couplings...was said you weren't an experienced coupler unless you were missing fingers!
So okay, I'm really excited by the technology and ingenuity that created the Transcontinental Railroad, but ironically, only a few miles from the Nat'l Monument, ATK Technologies (Morton Thiokol) has a static display of their solid-rocket booster engines used on a variety of craft, including space shuttles. Past to present ... we can certainly join oceans and touch space.
Some final thoughts on the Transcontinental Railroad. It sure seems like a testament to what government can accomplish when it encourages risk and competition that rewards results rather than simply taking control or mandating a result or predetermining a winner. No surprise there were abuses in the 19th century, exploited loopholes if you will. But the net result certainly speaks for the power of American business and entrepreneurship. When a society desires a certain result and government simply provides incentives to achieve that result rather than becoming involved in the process, or worse creating barriers, there don't seem to be any mountains we can't move, climb, or drill through.
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