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008 - Completion of the Line · Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad

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  Speaker 1: Section eight of the Story of the First Transcontinental Railroad
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  Speaker 1: by William Francis Bailey. This LibriVox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. Recording by Paul Harvey. Completion of the line
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  Speaker 1: connection made between Union and Central Pacific Railroads May ninth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine ceremonies ad promontory May tenth, eighteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: nine celebrations in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Omaha, Salt Lake City,
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  Speaker 1: and San Francisco. By the terms of the Supplementary Charter
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty four, a great incentive was given the
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  Speaker 1: two companies, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad,
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  Speaker 1: to get down as great a mileage as possible. In
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  Speaker 1: addition to the government grant of land and bonds based
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  Speaker 1: on mileage, there was the traffic of the Mormon Country
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  Speaker 1: and Salt Lake City at stake. Besides this, it was
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  Speaker 1: readily seen that the line having the greatest hall would
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  Speaker 1: be correspondingly benefited when it came to subdividing earnings on
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  Speaker 1: transcontinental business. With these for incentive, both companies put forth
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  Speaker 1: every effort to cover the ground. In the early part
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty nine, rails of each company were going
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  Speaker 1: down from six to ten miles a day. Records and
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  Speaker 1: track lane were made then that have never been broken.
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  Speaker 1: Near Promontory. A sign is still standing to announce ten
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  Speaker 1: miles of track laid in one day. Actual figures are
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  Speaker 1: not obtainable, but reliable contemporaries at that time stated that
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  Speaker 1: there were twenty five thousand men employed on the construction
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  Speaker 1: work of the two lines, as well as six thousand
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  Speaker 1: teams and two hundred construction trains. Both companies were anxious
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  Speaker 1: to establish point of a advantage that they could use
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  Speaker 1: in the controversy that was inevitable and which would determine
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  Speaker 1: the mileage and territory each was to enjoy. On April
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  Speaker 1: twenty ninth, nine and a half miles remained unfinished, three
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  Speaker 1: and a half for the Central Pacific Railroad, they having
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  Speaker 1: laid ten miles the day before, and six miles for
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  Speaker 1: the Union Pacific Railroad, the latter being the ascent a
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  Speaker 1: Promontory Hill and including a stiff bit of rock work.
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  Speaker 1: When the two tracks came together, the Central Pacific Railroad
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  Speaker 1: had nearly sixty miles of grading done parallel to the
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  Speaker 1: Union Pacific Railroad track, that is, from Promontory east to
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  Speaker 1: the mouth of Weber Canyon, while the Union Pacific Railroad
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  Speaker 1: had located their line to the California state line, and
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  Speaker 1: most of the grading was done as far west as
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  Speaker 1: Humboldt Wells, Nevada, one hundred and fifty miles from Ogden.
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  Speaker 1: As stated, the two tracks were brought together at Promontory
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  Speaker 1: on May ninth, eighteen sixty nine, but two rail links
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  Speaker 1: were kept open until the questions at issue were adjusted,
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  Speaker 1: and also until the suitable program could be arranged for
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  Speaker 1: celebrating the event. Everything satisfactorily arranged. Monday, the tenth of
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  Speaker 1: May eighteen sixty nine was set for the ceremonies. The
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  Speaker 1: Central Pacific Railroad completed their track up to Promontory May first.
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  Speaker 1: It was the intention to have the opening ceremonies on Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: May eighth, and the Central Pacific officials were on hand
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  Speaker 1: for that purpose. The Union Pacific party coming west were
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  Speaker 1: delayed some forty eight hours at Piedmont by a gang
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  Speaker 1: of graders and track layers who, not having received their wages,
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  Speaker 1: side to the special train, with Vice President Durant and
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  Speaker 1: his party holding them his hostages until the company had
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  Speaker 1: paid over to the contractor. Some two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars due him, in which he in turn distributed
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  Speaker 1: among the men. As early as eight a m. On
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  Speaker 1: the tenth, the spectators, mostly workmen of the respective companies
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  Speaker 1: or other citizens of the railway camps, commenced to arrive.
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  Speaker 1: At eight forty five, a special over the Central Pacific
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  Speaker 1: Railroad came in with a large number of passengers. At
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  Speaker 1: nine o'clock, the Union Pacific Railroad contingent arrived in two trains,
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  Speaker 1: and at eleven o'clock the Central Pacific Railroad second train,
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  Speaker 1: carrying President Stanford and other officers of that company and
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  Speaker 1: their guests, completing the party. In all, there were about
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  Speaker 1: eleven hundred persons present, including a detachment the twenty first
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  Speaker 1: United States Infantry and its band from Fort Douglas, Utah.
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  Speaker 1: The Chinese laborers of the Central Pacific Railroad soon leveled
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  Speaker 1: the gap preparatory to putting down the ties, and all
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  Speaker 1: but one rail length was finished. Then engines number one
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  Speaker 1: nineteen of the Union Pacific Railroad and number sixty, the
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  Speaker 1: Jupiter of the Central Pacific Railroad were brought up to
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  Speaker 1: either side of the gap. These engines were gaily decorated
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  Speaker 1: with flags and evergreens. In honor of the occasion, a
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  Speaker 1: suitable prayer was offered by Reverend Doctor Todd of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
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  Speaker 1: The remaining ties were then laid, the last one bean
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  Speaker 1: of California Laurel, finally polished and ornamented with the silver
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  Speaker 1: plate bearing the inscription The last tie laid on the
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  Speaker 1: Pacific Railroad May tenth, AI teen sixty nine, with the
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  Speaker 1: names of the directors of the Central Pacific Railroad and
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  Speaker 1: that of the donor. This tie was put in position
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  Speaker 1: by Superintendent's Read of the Union Pacific Railroad and Strawbridge
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  Speaker 1: of the Central Pacific Railroad, and was taken up after
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  Speaker 1: the ceremonies and has since that time been on exhibition
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  Speaker 1: in the Superintendent's Office of the Southern Pacific Company at Sacramento,
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  Speaker 1: California depot. For the closing Act, California presented a spike
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  Speaker 1: of gold, Nevada, one of silver, Arizona, one of combined
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  Speaker 1: iron gold and silver, and a Pacific Union Express Company
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  Speaker 1: a silver mall. At twelve noon at a given signal,
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  Speaker 1: Governor Stanford on the south side of the rail and
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  Speaker 1: Vice President Durant on the north struck the spikes driving
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  Speaker 1: them home. The two engines were then moved up until
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  Speaker 1: they touched, and a bottle of wine poured over the
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  Speaker 1: last rail as a libation. The trains of the respective
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  Speaker 1: roads were then run over the connecting link and back
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  Speaker 1: to their own lines. Speeches and a banquet closed the occasion.
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  Speaker 1: In the Crocker Art Gallery and Sacramento hangs a large
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  Speaker 1: oil painting of the meeting of the two engines, the
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  Speaker 1: artist having inserted actual portraits of many of the more
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  Speaker 1: prominent officials of the two lines who participated in the ceremonies.
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  Speaker 1: By previous arrangement, the strokes on the final spikes were
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  Speaker 1: to be signaled over all the wires of the several
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  Speaker 1: telegraph companies through the United States, business being suspended for
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  Speaker 1: this purpose. First, the message was sent over the wires.
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  Speaker 1: Almost ready, hats off, Prayer is being offered. Then we've
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  Speaker 1: got done praying. The spike is about to be presented.
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  Speaker 1: Seven minutes later. Already now the spike will soon be driven.
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  Speaker 1: The signal will be three dots for the commencement of
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  Speaker 1: the blows. Connection being made between the hammers and the wires.
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  Speaker 1: The blows on the spikes were flashed over practically the
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  Speaker 1: whole telegraph system of the United States. At two forty
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  Speaker 1: seven p m. Washington time, twelve m Promontory Local time came.
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  Speaker 1: The signal done, and the battels of Washington, New York, Chicago,
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco, and hundreds of other cities and towns announced
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  Speaker 1: that the American continent had been spanned, that through rail
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  Speaker 1: communication was established never to be broken, that the Union
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  Speaker 1: Pacific Railroad was completed. The formal announcement to President Grant
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  Speaker 1: and through the press associations to every inhabitant of the
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  Speaker 1: civilized world was couched, and the following Ye Language Promontory
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  Speaker 1: Summit Utah, May tenth, eighteen sixty nine. The last rail
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  Speaker 1: is laid, the last spike driven, the Pacific Railroad is completed.
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  Speaker 1: The point of junction is ten hundred and eighty six
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  Speaker 1: miles west of the Missouri River and six hundred and
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  Speaker 1: ninety miles east of Sacramento City, Leland, Stanford, Central Pacific Railroad, T. C. Durant, Sydney, Dillon,
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  Speaker 1: John Duff, Union Pacific Railroad. No sooner were the ceremonies
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  Speaker 1: complete than there was a rush made to obtain souvenirs
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  Speaker 1: in ignorance of the fact that the last tie had
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  Speaker 1: been taken up and an ordinary one substituted, the relic
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  Speaker 1: hunters carried off the substitute piecemeal. In fact, some half
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  Speaker 1: dozen last ties were so taken in the first six
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  Speaker 1: months after the roads were completed. An odd coincidence o
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  Speaker 1: at the closing ceremonies, the rail on the east was
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  Speaker 1: brought forward by the Union Pacific Laborers Europeans, that on
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  Speaker 1: the West by Chinese, both gangs having Americans as bosses. Consequently,
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  Speaker 1: here were Europe, Asia and America joining in the work,
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  Speaker 1: the Americans dominating. Next morning, the Union Pacific Railroad brought
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  Speaker 1: in from the East half a dozen passenger coaches for
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  Speaker 1: the Central Pacific Railroad, these being attached to the special
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  Speaker 1: train of Governor Stanford when he was returning to California,
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  Speaker 1: constituting the first through equipment all over the land. The
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  Speaker 1: different cities vied with one another in celebrating the event,
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  Speaker 1: which it was truly felt marked the beginning of a
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  Speaker 1: new epoch in the history of the United States. New
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  Speaker 1: York City celebrated with the Tidam being sung in Trinity,
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  Speaker 1: the chimes ringing out Old hundred praised God from whom
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  Speaker 1: all blessings flow, and a salute of a hundred guns
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  Speaker 1: fired by order of the mayor. Philadelphia rang a liberty
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  Speaker 1: bell and all fire alarm bells. Chicago had a parade
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  Speaker 1: four miles long, the city being lavishly decorated, and Vice
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  Speaker 1: President Colfax speaking in the evening. Omaha had the biggest
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  Speaker 1: day in its history, a hundred guns when the news came,
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  Speaker 1: a procession embracing every able bodied man in the town
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  Speaker 1: in the afternoon, speeches, pyrotechnics, and illuminations. In the evening
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  Speaker 1: at Salt Lake, the Mormons and Genteels held a love
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  Speaker 1: feast in the tabernacle and decided to build a few
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  Speaker 1: railroads for themselves. San Francisco could not wait until the tenth.
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  Speaker 1: They started the evening of the eighth when it was
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  Speaker 1: announced at the theaters the two roads had met, and
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  Speaker 1: it took two good, solid days of celebrating to satisfy
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  Speaker 1: the people of that town. It was rightly felt that
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  Speaker 1: the completion of the line was an event in the
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  Speaker 1: history of our country. It marked the progress of the West,
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  Speaker 1: united the Pacific coast population with that of the East.
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  Speaker 1: It was the commencement of the end of the Indian
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  Speaker 1: troubles assured the settlement of the West and the development
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  Speaker 1: of its mines and other resources. There has been but
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  Speaker 1: three general celebrations held in this country over works of
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  Speaker 1: public approvement, viz. The Erie Canal, Atlantic Cable and the
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  Speaker 1: Pacific Railroad. Of the three, the latter was by far
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  Speaker 1: the more general. The poem by Brett Hart on this
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  Speaker 1: event is reproduced below. What the engine said? What was it?
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  Speaker 1: The engine said, Pilots touching head to head, facing on
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  Speaker 1: the single track, half a world behind each back. This
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  Speaker 1: is what the engine said, unreported and on read with
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  Speaker 1: a prefatory screech in a florid Western speech, said the
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  Speaker 1: engine from the west. I am from Sierra's crest. And
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  Speaker 1: if altitudes attest, why I reckoned? It's confessed that I've
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  Speaker 1: done my level best, said the engine from the east.
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  Speaker 1: They who work best talk the least. Suppose you whistle
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  Speaker 1: down your brakes. What you're done is no great shakes,
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  Speaker 1: pretty fair. But let our meeting be a different kind
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  Speaker 1: of greeting. Let these folks with champagne stuffing, not the engines,
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  Speaker 1: do the puffing. Listen where Atlanta beats shores of snow
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  Speaker 1: and summer heats, where the Indian autumn skies paint the
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  Speaker 1: woods with wampum dyes. I have chased the flying sun,
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  Speaker 1: seeing all that he looked upon, blessing all that he blest,
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  Speaker 1: nursing in my iron breast, all his vivifying heat, all
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  Speaker 1: his clouds about my crest, and before my flying feet.
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  Speaker 1: Every shadow must retreat, said the Western engine, Foo, and
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  Speaker 1: a long whistle Blue. Come now, Really, that's the oddest
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  Speaker 1: talk for one so modest. You brag of your east?
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  Speaker 1: You do why I bring the East to you? All
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  Speaker 1: the orient all cathay find me through the shortest way,
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  Speaker 1: and the sun you follow here rises in my hemisphere. Really,
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  Speaker 1: if one must be rude, lingth my friend ain't longitude,
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  Speaker 1: said the Union. Don't reflect, or I'll run over some
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  Speaker 1: direct door, said the Central I'm Pacific, but when riled,
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  Speaker 1: I'm quite terrific. Yet to day we shall not quarrel.
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  Speaker 1: Just to show these folks this moral, how two engines
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  Speaker 1: in their vision once have met without collision. That is
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  Speaker 1: what the engine said, unreported and unread, spoken slightly through
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  Speaker 1: the nose, with a whistle. At the close, The first
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  Speaker 1: through train reached Omaha May sixth, arriving in two sections
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  Speaker 1: and bringing about five hundred passengers. Although through trains were
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  Speaker 1: on regular schedule commencing with May eleventh, it was not
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  Speaker 1: until November sixth, eighteen sixty nine that the road was
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  Speaker 1: actually completed, according to judicial decision. Congress to make sure
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  Speaker 1: of the fact, authorized the President by resolution passed April tenth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine, to appoint a board the five Eminent
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  Speaker 1: Citizens to examine and report on the condition of the
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  Speaker 1: road and what would be required to bring it up
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  Speaker 1: to first class condition. This board duly reported in October
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine that the line was all right, but
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  Speaker 1: that a million and a half could be spent to
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  Speaker 1: advantage in ballasting, terminal facilities, depots, equipment, et cetera. On
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  Speaker 1: the strength at which the Wiseacres decided the road could
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  Speaker 1: not be considered complete and withheld a million dollars worth
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  Speaker 1: of bonds due under the Charter Act. It was October first,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy four, before the fact that the line was
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  Speaker 1: actually completed sifted through the departmental red tape, and the
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of Interior, on the further report of three Eminent Citizens,
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  Speaker 1: discovered that the road had been completed. November sixth eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty nine, as reported by the previous board of five
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  Speaker 1: and further that the total cost of the line had
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  Speaker 1: been one hundred and fifteen million, two hundred and fourteen thousand,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred and eighty seven dollars and seventy nine cents,
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  Speaker 1: as shown by the books of the company. For a
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  Speaker 1: while business was interchanged at Promontory, but it was but
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  Speaker 1: a short time until the two companies got together and
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  Speaker 1: in agreement was reached by which Ogden should be the terminus,
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  Speaker 1: and that the Central Pacific Railroad Company should purchase, at
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  Speaker 1: cost price two million, six hundred and ninety eight thousand,
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  Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty dollars the line from the point
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  Speaker 1: five miles west of Ogden to the connection at Promontory.
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  Speaker 1: This five miles was subsequently sold to the Central Pacific Railroad.
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  Speaker 1: This arrangement was, as the West puts it, clinched by
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  Speaker 1: a resolution of Congress making Ogden the terminus. End of
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  Speaker 1: Section eight Record wording by Paul Harvey