The Transcontinental Railroad’s Last Spike

Today’s installment concludes First North American Transcontinental Railroad Completed,
our selection from The Union Pacific Railway by John P. Davis published in 1894.

If you have journeyed through all of the installments of this series, just one more to go and you will have completed a selection from the great works of six thousand words. Congratulations! For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in First North American Transcontinental Railroad Completed.

Time: May 10, 1869
Place: Promontory Summit, Utah

The disputed question of the point of junction did not interfere with a due celebration of the meeting and joining of the two “ends of track” at Promontory Point on May 10, 1869. A space of about one hundred feet was left between the ends of the lines. Early in the day, Leland Stanford, Governor of California and president of the Central Pacific, arrived with his party from the west; in the forenoon Vice-President Durant and Directors Duff and Dillon, of the Union Pacific, with other men, including a delegation of Mormon “saints” from Salt Lake City, came in on a train from the east. The National Government was represented by a detachment of regulars from Fort Douglas, with the opportune accessories of ornamental officers and a military band. Curious Mexicans, Indians, and half-breeds, with the Chinese, negro, and Irish laborers, lent to the auspicious little gathering a suggestive air of cosmopolitanism. The ties were laid for the rails in the open space, and while the coolies from the west laid the rails at one end, the Irishmen from the east laid them at the other end, until they met and joined. The last spike remained to be driven. Telegraphic wires were so connected that each blow of the sledge could be reported instantly on the telegraphic instruments in most of the large cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific; corresponding blows were struck on the bell of the City Hall in San Francisco, and with the last blow of the sledge a cannon was fired at Fort Point. General Safford presented a spike of gold, silver, and iron as the offering of the Territory of Arizona; Tuttle, of Nevada, performed with a spike of silver a like office for his State. The tie of California laurel was put in place, and Doctor Harkness, of California, presented the last spike of gold in behalf of his State. A silver sledge had also been presented for the occasion. The driving of the spike by President Stanford and Vice-President Durant was greeted with lusty cheers; and the shouts of the six hundred persons present, to the accompaniment of the screams of the locomotive whistles and the blare of the military band, in the midst of the desert, found hearty and enthusiastic echoes in the great cities east and west.

After the last spike had been driven, the Central Pacific train was backed up, and the Union Pacific locomotive, with its train, passed slowly over the point of junction and back again; then the Central Pacific locomotive, with its train, went through the same ceremony.

The “driving of the last spike” was announced simultaneously by telegraph in all the large cities of the Union. Tele graphic inquiries at the Omaha office, from which the circuit was to be started, were answered: “To everybody. Keep quiet. When the last spike is driven at Promontory Point, we will say ‘Done.’ Don’t break the circuit but watch for the signals of the blows of the hammer.” Soon followed the message from Promontory Point, “Almost ready. Hats off; prayer is being offered”; then, “We have got done praying. The spike is about to be presented,” and —- “All ready now. The spike will ‘soon be driven. The signal will be three dots for the beginning of the blows.” The magnet tapped—One—Two—Three—then paused —“ Done!” Wires in every direction were “hot” with congratulatory telegrams. President Grant and Vice-President Colfax were the recipients of especially felicitous messages. In San Francisco it had been announced on the evening of May 8th from the stages of the theatres and other public places that the two roads had met and were to be wedded on the morrow. The city could not wait; the celebration began at once and continued practically through the 10th. The booming of cannon and the ringing of bells were united with the other species of noise-making in which jubilant humanity finds expression for its feeling on such an occasion. The buildings in the city and the shipping in the harbor were gay with flags and bunting. Business was suspended and the longest procession that San Francisco ever had seen at tested the enthusiasm of the people. At night the city was brilliant with illuminations. Free railway trains filled Sacramento with an unwonted crowd, and the din of cannon, steam-whistles, and bells followed the final message. At the eastern terminus in Omaha, the firing of a hundred guns on Capitol Hill, more bells and steam-whistles, and a grand procession of fire-companies, civic societies, fraternities, citizens, and visiting delegations from surrounding places echoed the sentiments of the Californians. In Chicago a procession four miles in length, a lavish display of decorations in the city and on the vessels in the river, and an address by Vice-President Colfax in the evening were the evidences of the city’s feeling. In New York, by order of the mayor, a salute of a hundred guns announced the culmination of the great undertaking. In Trinity Church the Te Deum was chanted and prayers were offered, and when the services were over the chimes rang out Old Hundred, the Ascension Carol, and national airs. The ringing of bells at Independence Hall and the fire-stations in Philadelphia produced an unusual concourse of citizens to celebrate the national event. In the other large cities of the country the expressions of public gratification were hardly less hearty and demonstrative.

This ends our series of passages on First North American Transcontinental Railroad Completed by John P. Davis from his book The Union Pacific Railway published in 1894. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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