ABOVE: Actors help recreate A.J. Russell’s fa- mous “Champagne Photo” at Promontory on the 143nd anniversary of the Golden Spike ceremony, May 10, 2012. LEFT: Number 119 is being blown down during an afternoon demonstration run on May 8, 2012. The Na- tional Park Service has done an excellent job recreating era of the 1860s. Vintage photo- graphs and surveyor’s reports were used as a guide to reconstruct the tracks, telegraph line, and sidings just as they existed in 1869.
one willing to finance the creation of solid silver or gold section of rail, had the spike cast and engraved on May 4th, then gave it to Leland Stanford to take to Promontory. Thanks to newspa- per coverage and great public interest, the Hewes spike quickly became leg- endary as the symbolic “last spike” of the Pacific Railroad.
During the ceremony the four pre- The Great Event
Union Pacific and Central Pacific dignitaries traveled aboard special trains to the last spike ceremony, Cen- tral Pacific’s being pulled by the 4-4-0 Jupiter and UP’s by 4-4-0 No. 119. On the morning of May 10th the locomo- tives faced each other across the one- rail gap that was left in the track at Promontory Summit, and a short cere- mony was held just after noon that was
witnessed by about 600 people. After prayers and speeches, four ceremonial spikes were presented: an iron spike clad in gold and silver from Arizona; a forged silver spike from Nevada; a cast gold spike from the San Francisco Newsletter and Advertiser; and a cast and engraved spike made of California gold provided by David Hewes of San Francisco. Hewes, after
discovering
that that no commemorative item had been made for the event, and finding no
cious metal spikes were placed into pre- drilled holes in a polished laurelwood crosstie provided by West Evans, Cen- tral Pacific’s tie contractor, and tapped with a silver-plated spike maul made for the occasion by the Pacific Express Company. They were then replaced by regular iron spikes driven into a regu- lar wooden tie, one of which was wired to a telegraph to announce to the world that the railroad was complete. The news was celebrated with parades and parties in several major cities. To many people it was simply unbelievable what
43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68