Today is the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad. What began here in the metro in July 1865 was completed 4 years later, May 10th 1869 at Promontory Summit in Utah.
National Parks Service" wrote:
The Champagne Photo
Following the driving of the last spike, Union Pacific engine No. 119 and Central Pacific’s Jupiter were run up until they nearly touched. Railroad officials retired to their cars, leaving the engineers and workmen to celebrate.
The champagne flowed and engineers George Booth and Sam Bradford each broke a bottle upon the other’s locomotive. Samuel S. Montague, Central Pacific’s Chief Engineer and his counterpart, Grenville M. Dodge, shook hands to symbolize the end of the race to build the nation’s first transcontinental railroad. This moment in time became immortalized in Andrew J. Russell’s famous photograph.
A Ceremony was held yesterday where UP puled the 844 and the Big Boy nose to nose in Ogden to recreate this famous photo. Today a similar ceremony will take place at the actual Promontory Summit in Utah with replica locomotives. The tracks at Promontory Summit were removed during world war two and the site is now part of the National Parks Service.
Union Pacific Railroad wrote:
From left are Sandy Dodge, descendent of Gen. Grenville Dodge; Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, Union Pacific Chairman, President and CEO Lance Fritz, Utah Congressman Rob Bishop, Margarat Yee, a descendent of a Central Pacific employee, and Scott Moore, Union Pacific senior vice president-Corporate Relations and chief administrative officer.
Sandy Dodge is a descendant of Grenville Dodge, and President of NP Dodge Real-Estate here in Omaha.
