Pacific Railroads
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a general name given to all the railroads connecting the Pacific coast of the United States with other parts of the country, to which the aid of the National government was given in their construction. In 1862 an act was passed, granting to the companies five sections of public land and $16,000 in government bonds for every mile constructed, the land and bonds for every stretch of 40 miles to be turned over to the company only on the completion of such stretch. The Union Pacific railroad was built W. over the mountains, and the Central Pacific railroad was built E. from Sacramento. These two lines were joined, with impressive ceremonies, at Promontory Point, Utah, May 10, 1869. The last tie, of laurel wood, with a plate of silver upon it, was laid, and the last spike made of iron, silver, and gold, was driven in the presence of distinguished men. Telegraph wires were attached to the last rail, and the last blows were signaled upon bells in Washington and other large cities. In May, 1878, an act, known as the Thurman Act, was passed. In addition to the amounts retained out of sums due for government service, the Act of 1862 provided for the payment of 5 per cent. of the net earnings of the company. The Act of 1878 retained the entire amount due to the companies for government service, one-half to be applied to interest payments, one-half to form a sinking fund for the principal, and it required, moreover, the annual payment of a fixed sum ($850,000 for the Union Pacific and $1,200,000 for the Central Pacific). See RAILWAYS.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 as if the government's Pacific Railroad debts were still live business; in fact the Union Pacific and Central Pacific obligations under the 1862 and Thurman Acts were settled in the late 1890s, after the Union Pacific's bankruptcy and reorganisation. The junction itself was bypassed in 1904 by the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake, and in 1942 the original rails at Promontory were torn up for wartime scrap at a ceremony sometimes called the "undriving" of the golden spike; the site is now Golden Spike National Historical Park, and the gold spike is kept at Stanford. The Central Pacific was long since absorbed by the Southern Pacific, which the Union Pacific itself bought in 1996, while intercity passenger trains over the route passed to Amtrak in 1971. Modern accounts also correct the place-name Collier's uses — the rails met at Promontory Summit, not Promontory Point — and give far more prominence to the thousands of Chinese labourers who built the Central Pacific's mountain grades.
Written for this edition, 2026.