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WELCOME
On July 30, 1965 Golden Spike National
Historic Site was created "for the purpose of establishing a
national historic site commemorating the completion of the first
transcontinental railroad across the United States...
Some 690 miles east of Sacramento and 1,087
miles west of Omaha, Golden Spike lies in the northern reaches of
the Great Basin Desert and ranges from 4,300 to 4,900 feet above sea
level. Located at the site of the driving of the last spike of the
first transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, its paramount
purpose is to illustrate the social, economic, and political impacts
of the transcontinental railroad on the growth and westward
development of the United States.
...the paramount historical significance
of the first transcontinental railroad lies in its
effect upon the Far Western frontier. It made the
first serious and permanent breech in the frontier,
and established the process by which the entire
frontier was to be demolished. As the site where
the Central Pacific and Union Pacific united to
inaugurate cross-country rail travel, Promontory
Summit best illustrates the historical meaning, as
well as the dramatic construction story, of the
first transcontinental railroad.
Robert M. Utley
Special Report on Promontory Summit,
Utah
February 1960
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