Brigham City, UT
Golden Spike National Historic Monument
Located 32 miles west of Brigham City via Highways 13 and 83.

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ATK Thiokol Propulsion




TX-486 Patriot




Golden Spike National Historic Monument

Competition, 1869 Spurred by financial rewards for building track, and lacking precise instructions from Congress, the two railroad companies graded raithed past each other for 250 miles. In this photo taken one day before the transcontinental line was finished, a thirty-foot gap in the railroad remains to be completed. Quickly a town grew at the Last Spike Site and two of the first businesses, the Restaurant and the Red Cloud saloon, stand in the background. Within days numerous other tents would appear as the town of Promontory came into existence. Behind the crowd are some of the cars which carried Central Pacific Railroad dignitaries to the celebration. After the opening of the Lucin Cutoff in 1904 the historic rail line north of the Great Salt Lake was of minimal importance. After four additional decades of modest use, here in 1942 the last spike was ceremonially "undriven" before a crowd of UP, SP, and state dignitaries. In a few months the entire line between Corinne and Lucin was salvaged, with the steel directed to America's war effort. The rail spanning the continent in the 1860's weighed 56 pounds to the yard, and was of wrought iron in a "pear-shaped" configuration. Congressional acts required the Pacific Railway to be built with materials of American manufacture, and steel rail, available only from Europe at that time, could not be used. Such light iron could not stand the abuse of increasingly heavy locomotives, and it was replaced in just a few years with more durable steel. The piece before you is one of the few complete sections of Trans continental Iron left today.

Stairway To Pomontory The cut below on the Union Pacific grade is a good example of the stair step construction method used by the railroads. The workers were set to grading, scraping and blasting on sever different levels of a cut at once. This method increased efficience and speed in building the railroad: Excavation on this cut was most likely terminated about April 9, 1869, when the decision was made that the railroads would meet at Promontory. This decision called a halt to the great railroad race which had previously resulted in 250 miles of parallel grading in northern Utah.

Stairway To Pomontory as it looks today


The Great Salt Lake to the South in the distance.

The Last Cut By April of 1869, the Union Pacific was working its Mormon and Irish graders day and night in order to meet the scheduled deadline for the completion of the railroad. Below you is the last cut that they made along the transcontinental route. Cuts such as these were necessary to maintain a smooth and steady grade and to keep within the 2 percent maximum rise (106 feet per mile) mandated by the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. Atop the cut, notice the excess rock left over from excavation, neatly stacked with the largest rocks

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