There are many people interested in former transportation companies, whether they were trucking companies, railroads, airlines or ocean lines. They are called “fallen flags,” and the term describes those companies whose corporate names have been dissolved through merger, bankruptcy or liquidation.
This FreightWaves Classics article provides an overview of the Southern Pacific (reporting mark SP) Railroad, which was one of America’s most successful and widely recognized railroads. The Southern Pacific’s heritage is intertwined with one of the most important events in American history – the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
A historical overview
The Southern Pacific was an American Class I railroad network that was founded in 1865 and operated until it was acquired in 1996. Its system was primarily in the western and southwestern United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and S
Editor s note: This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah and U.S. history for KSL.com s Historic section.
PROMONTORY, Box Elder County Western Box Elder County may seem like a vacant, open space to some, but it remains a treasure trove for historians and archeologists seeking all the information they can get about one of the most significant moments in U.S. history.
The bits and pieces of materials left behind by the transcontinental railroad workers in the late 1860s and the first generation of railroad communities that were established shortly after the railroad was completed, which happened 152 years ago Monday, tell more about the story of the railroad than most documentation of the time.
Editor s note: This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah and U.S. history for KSL.com s Historic section.
PROMONTORY, Box Elder County Western Box Elder County may seem like a vacant, open space to some, but it remains a treasure trove for historians and archeologists seeking all the information they can get about one of the most significant moments in U.S. history.
The bits and pieces of materials left behind by the transcontinental railroad workers in the late 1860s and the first generation of railroad communities that were established shortly after the railroad was completed, which happened 152 years ago Monday, tell more about the story of the railroad than most documentation of the time.
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Utah’s Great Salt Lake is a remnant of ancient Lake Bonneville. Today, it is the largest saline lake in the western hemisphere and keystone to the ecosystem of northern Utah. Human attempts to dominate its massive waters have radically changed its appearance and ecology. The shrinking lake is Utah’s canary in the coal mine drying up right before our eyes as climate change begins to affect our home.
Trouble began for our inland sea in 1904 when the Union Pacific Railroad constructed a twelve-mile wooden causeway between the lake’s western shore and Promontory Point. It cut the water body in half. The trestle, called the Lucin Cutoff, used wood from almost 40,000 trees – enough for a two-square-mile forest. Eventually, it sank, and the causeway blocked the water flow to the lake’s north arm. Now, it is pink in color because increased salinity allows halophilic bacteria to flourish. The less salty south remains a blue-green.