Happy 144th Birthday, Transcontinental Railroad!!!
The "Golden Spike" (also known as "The Last Spike"[1]) is the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. The term "Last Spike" has been used to refer to one driven at the usually ceremonial completion of any new railroad construction projects, particularly those in which construction is undertaken from two disparate origins towards a meeting point. The "Last Spike" now lies in the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.[2]
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Pardon the Trivia, Lounge, but I worked regulating railroads for 20+ years, and one of my close colleagues doing the same work happens to have his birthday May 10, so its remained a special date!!!
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With the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Point, Utah in May of 1869, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads, completed the transcontinental railroad between Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California. However there was still one point in the system where passengers and freight still has to use riverboats to cross the San Joaquin River at Mossdale. On September 8, 1869 the bridge over the San Joaquin river (see trestle in photographs) was completed and the first train crossed the bridge over the San Joaquin River. This was really the last link in the transcontinental railroad system.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=11380
Nothing like trivia upon trivia!!!
The terminus in the middle of the country for the major railroads has always been either Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, or New Orleans - essentially the Mississippi River.
Here's the UP system;
Here's the BNSF system;
(FWIW, the BNSF trackage from the California line to the NM/TX line is among the busiest freight rail corridors in the country, with a train passing through Clovis, NM on average every 7 minutes.)
Here's the Norfolk Southern system;
And here is the CSX system map;
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Who later came to San Francisco and made the city as diverse as it is.
I live east of the Bay Area on a house on a levee on a river in the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta.
Much of the land is below sea level, 25 feet and more below sea level!
And the work of reclaiming all of this land, of building levees with wheelbarrows, was done mostly by Chinese.
The town of Locke makes an interesting day trip destination for folks within an hour or two:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locke,_California
It's an exquisitely fitted dry granite stone (well, bolder) wall supporting the original roadbed just spitting distance east of the Sierra summit.
after I learned a bit. Was involved with evaluating mergers, including MoPa;c UP/MP/WP. Took a fabulous trip, with colleagues, BY RAIL, through the territory. Would have waived to you, had I known!!!
more closely related to T. Jefferson's sponsored exploration of the West.
What a beautiful day for a ride! 
Sunny and in the 80s.
Worker memorials
The spike spot is between the two trains:
There were supposed to be some pictures of the Spiral Jetty as well, which is only 16 miles up the road from Promontory, but we failed to realize that getting gas at Corrine, right as you get off the freeway, wasn't optional. 
We didn't have enough fuel to make the extra 32-mile round trip and had to turn back. But, it was a beautiful ride on a perfect day, and we're looking forward to making another trip to go out to the jetty.
I am sunburned and tired. This was an awesome first ride of the season!
