Transcripts For CSPAN3 Promontory Summit 20240714

Completed. This spot right here marks by the lower wood high is within inches of where the original ceremony was held on may 10th, 1869. Included on this high is a plaque that lists many of the dignitaries from that company. Including Leland Stanfords name. Another thing you can see here at the site is the connection with the resources and that wouldve been available. The two companies building the railroads we have mocked up everything to try to make it as authentic as possible. If you look on the west side you will see precut ties. The Central Pacific had plenty of wood in the serum that is and because of that they had sawmills and they cut all of their ties and brought them down from the mountain. The Union Pacific coming from the east had to hand cut their ties wherever they can find wood. Not a lot available in the areas so they you can see them right here how they would just cut them and bring them out when they could. The Transcontinental Railroad was happening at the end of the victorian age as you are going into the industrial age. It was a perfect time for the United States because when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, it made a major impact in the Industrial Development of this nation. The complete construction took just over, it was about 6. 5 years. From 18621869. Time. Just before they started building the Transcontinental Railroad would have been with a lot of people were coming out after the gold rush. Were also in the middle of the civil war. Abraham lincoln really wanted to have access to all of the materials available in the sierra nevadas including the gold and silver and connect the new states to the United States. So he chose that time to complete and Start Building the Transcontinental Railroad. Obviously in the middle of the war it of the country was a major factor. They wanted to get across the country in a quicker period of time. They wanted to ship the goods in the factories back east and the finished goods that would go back east. 46 months around the horn around south america. It would hopefully be about two weeks and that was abraham lincolns goal and it ended up that it was 710 days. The two companies that started building the Transcontinental Railroad where the Pacific Railroad company that started in sacramento, california and the Union Pacific Railroad Company that started in omaha, nebraska. There were already rail systems back there. One of the problems was the companys were building before they got paid. They were almost always in debt and always worrying about money. The other problem was resources. A huge problem with resources. If you ever travel through wyoming and nebraska, there is not a lot of wood. If you look underneath the rails, wooden ties had to be placed all along the route for railroad. They had to build buildings for water towers and just the infrastructure of operating the railroad across the country. Another problem was finding manpower to build the manpower railroad. The end of the civil war was a huge help for the Railroad Companies because you had all these sections from the war looking for a way to provide for their lives and their livelihood. There was a ready employer in the Railroad Company. Now for the Central Pacific, this was a bigger concern because early on in the building of the railroad, a lot of their workers would come on long enough to get money to go and mine in the gold or silver fields or minds. That is why they were brought on as an experiment. They brought on 50 Chinese Workers to test them out. There were a lot of doubts because they didnt think they would be able to withstand the 1012 hours days 12 days a week. There was a lot of criticism and racism against the chinese. Eventually they overcame all those doubts and did a fantastic job. So well in fact that over 11,000 chinese were employed by the end of the Transcontinental Railroad. Both companies as they approached each other were being paid land grants and government bonds to build and they didnt want to give up ground to each other. Instead of coming together and giving up and finding out where they would meet, they continue to build past one another until the federal government upton and said we are going to pay you anymore until you figure out where you will meet. That is when they decided the spot that we are standing right beside and they gave both the companies of 30 miles of track they had to finish. You are looking down over some of the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake. Two major factors influenced the path across the whole route. One was finding fresh water available every 1530 miles to refill the tanks that would provide water for the boilers on the steam locomotive. Another thing was they needed to stay under the 2 grade which is only 100 feet in elevation change every mile. As they were trying to find their way through utah, one of the challenges they face was a large Saltwater Lake and it wouldnt allow any freshwater. They had to find a path around it. They were thinking about going to the wetland area. One of the engineers brought up what if the lake level rises. They decided to come up on the foothills north of the lake even though that would present more challenges with the grading to stay away from the lake and prevent flooding and damage of the railroad. Another thing you can see is if you look down just below us, you can see the other grade. The two companies building across the country past each other through utah with grade work because they didnt want to give up money that the federal government was providing. Down below us is the old Union Pacific grade which would have been abandoned less than a year after the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad when they sold the rights to the Central Pacific Railroad Company. The Central Pacific had worked through utah a lot longer they had a much Higher Quality grade. When they bought the rights from Union Pacific, they switched to their grade and that is where we are standing on the original transpacific grade. We are coming up to the last track that was made by the Union Pacific in their approach to Summit Valley right here. In just a minute we will be able to look down and you can see in order to get through different elevation changes, they would cut through the rock. And blast with black powder making these channels that they could build the railroad through. These hills that you see on the far side of this cut is from the 1860s. This is rock that was stacked up. You can see they even put some bigger rocks to act as a wall, a retaining wall to keep it from collapsing into the cut. Pretty neat that you can see work that has lasted almost 160 years. As they approach the actual ceremony and they figured out the spot here at promontory summit, a lot of people were interested in knowing when they would complete and they actually had a lot of reporters from all over the country that came out with dignitaries from the two companies. A lot of individuals from other Railroad Companies that would connect to the mainline and benefit with their businesses from that. The day that was set for the completion when the federal government made these Companies Set when they would finish and where was may 8. We hold our anniversary every year on may 10. That is because there was a delay in the Union Pacific getting out here. They were not able to hold the ceremony until that day. When they actually held the ceremony, one of the neat part of the story, they did have the ceremonial spike which gives us our name, Golden Spike National Historic site. They had four ceremonial spikes including two solid gold, solid silver and the arizona spike which is iron, silver, and gold. Because they are precious metal they could not drive the spikes. They had to predrill holes like you see here. And place the special metal spikes into the hole. We get off where the golden spike was. We dont know which position the golden spike would have held. They would have placed those in as part of the ceremony and then caps them. They use them as part of the ceremony but removed it. There was a last spike that was driven. When you hear the driving of the last spike, it wasnt the golden spike. It was an iron spike that was linked to the telegraph. It tied the wires around the spike and a hammer. When they drove it in it since broadcast across the country. And it started celebrations. During the celebrations, one of the famous pictures you see is the champagne photo. For that photo there were two locomotives on site. We have replicas of those two engines that operate on the daily basis throughout our summer season. It is the Central Pacific jupiter and the Union Pacific 119. They have been the most famous locomotives. Being able to run those that people see on a daily basis is a cool way to commemorate that. After the ceremony, a lot of pictures were taken. The operation of the railroad became huge throughout the country. Because they were trying to increase time and efficiency within these companies themselves eventually the line that was passing through this area was a bypass. They built a causeway straight across the Great Salt Lake from the nevada utah border straight across the point of Promontory Mountains that are just behind us straight into ogden. That cut about 80 miles of extra travel time, money, all of that off the operation of the transcontinental line. Ogden became a huge hub for transporting troops and materials and supplies all across the country. And there would be trains every hour coming in and unloading huge amounts of supplies and it became a major city and major thoroughfare. This is a special edition of American History tv. A sample of the compelling history programs that air every weekend on American History tv like lectures in history, american artifacts, real america, the civil war, oral history, the presidency and special events about our nations history. Enjoy American History tv now and every weekend on cspan three. Next month marks 100 years since Congress Took the first step in granting women the right to vote on passing the 19th amendment to the u. S. Constitution and sending it to the state thursday we bring you an event with historians who talk about some of the lesserknown leaders of the Suffrage Movement in the book why they marched. That is 8 pm eastern here on c span three. The reviews are in for c span the president s book. It recently topped the New York Times new and noteworthy column. It is called a milepost in the everchanging reputations of our president s. From the new york journal of books, the president s makes a fast and grossing read. With graduations and fathers day fast approaching, it makes a great gift. Read about how noted president ial historians rank the best and worst chief executives. From George Washington to barack obama. Explore the life events that shaped our leaders, challenges they face and the legacies they have left behind. Cspans the president is now available as hardcover or e book today at cspan. Org or wherever books are sold. Next, archaeologists and Stanford Historical Society President , laura jones, gives an illustrated talk on how railroad profits were used to