Sue and I have spent a lot of time on this trip visiting locations that explored the migration of people from the east to the west coast by wagon. The completion of the Transcontinental Rail, at the location of Golden Spike NHP almost immediately put an end to the perilous multi, month-long land journey over the mountains and across the plains, rivers and desert of the western half of this country.

The Pacific Railway Act of 1862, authorized the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroad Companies to begin construction of rail lines to connect the east and west coasts. The Central Pacific Railroad built eastward from Sacramento, California and the Union Pacific Railroad, built westward from the Missouri River. The rails met in Prothonotary, Utah, on May 10, 1869. The two railroad companies had laid 1,776 miles of track to reach this point, crossing deserts, rivers and boring through mountains to connect the east with the west.

According to the Digital History of Utah, travel across by wagon west cost $1,000 and took five months or more to complete (assuming the person survived the trip). The Transcontinental railroad reduced the cost of the journey to $65 to $135 (depending on ticket class) and reduced transit time to seven days.

The government compensated the Central and Union Pacific by granting rights-of-way of 200 feet on each side of the track and providing funding of $16,000 to $48,000 (depending on the difficulty of the terrain) for each mile of track laid. (Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2018). Building the Transcontinental Railroad, Digital History ID 3147. Retrieved October 7, 2024.)

Not only did the Transcontinental Railroad greatly facilitate travel west, it also changed how Americans set their clocks. In the past people set their clocks based on the position of the sun. As late as the 1880’s many towns set their clocks locally, creating hundreds of different “town-based time zones”. This worked as long as transit time from town-to-town was long. But now that trains were quickly moving people from location to location, crossing dozens of different “town-based time zones” created a logistical nightmare for the railroad companies.

Did the Federal Government recognize the need to establish consistent time zones across the continent? No, it was the railroad companies that got together and established four time zones. The Federal Government eventually embraced the railroad time zones (with some modification) in 1918.

It is interesting to note that railroad tracks have not significantly changed shape over the past 150 years. Their weight-bearing capacity has increased, but the general shape has remained consistent.

As with many national historic places, the transcontinental rail line was not well preserved. The rail line that passed through Prothonotary was bypassed in 1904 and most of the original rails were removed in 1942 so the steel could be used for the WWII effort. Had it not been for local resident Bernice Gibbs Anderson, the Golden Spike National Historical Park may not exist today.

The park contains two miles of rebuilt track. A replica of Central Pacific’s Jupiter engine, that was present at the completion of the transcontinental rail line, is on display and runs on these tracks.

Well, the train has left the station, and we are off to see the Great Salt Lake.