Hear the Train Blow: A Pictorial Epic of America in the Railroad Age

Date

1952

Identifier

Webber Collection

Type

Publisher

New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.

Abstract

On 10 May 1869, after six years of laying rails, the last spike was hammered into the ground during an apparently alcohol-soaked ceremony in Promontory, Utah. One of the photographs, here, features a champagne bottle extended between the two train drivers. The joining together of the track was seven years ahead of schedule, and nothing of the sort had ever been built in America before: ‘there were no precedents for a work of this magnitude, especially at such high elevations’. The construction of the 3077 kilometre railroad helped to ease the white settlement of the West Coast, reducing travelling time from weeks to days. Little thought was given to the encroachment of the railroad onto native lands, and the changes that this would bring about.

Files

Cab 16-0001.jpg

Citation

Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, “Hear the Train Blow: A Pictorial Epic of America in the Railroad Age,” ourheritage.ac.nz | OUR Heritage, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ourheritage.ac.nz/items/show/11402.