Golden Spike Cultural Landscape Report

Establishing the Point of Junction

In early 1867, Interior Secretary O. H. Browning responded to an inquiry from the House of Representatives regarding the relationship between the junction of the two lines and the amount of bonds to be issued to either company. In reply, Browning stated: "Since the locations of the different roads have not been definitely determined throughout their whole extent, the above estimate must be regarded only as near an approximation as it is possible at the present date to furnish. The point of junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific has been assumed to be 78.295 miles east of Salt Lake City or at a point which will entitle each of these companies to the same amount of bonds" (quoted in Railroad Across the Continent 1868:11).

Despite the apparently official nature of Browning's pronouncement, it did little to clarify the meeting point since neither company was interested in an equal amount of bonds and there was simply no legal standing for a 78.295-mile point (McCague 1964:297). The 1866 amendatory legislation, as previously noted, because of the clause that allowed each railroad company to work 300 miles in advance of its completed tracks, confounded the problem of determining a precise junction even further. Trying to resolve the issue, government and railroad officials alike generally concluded that the "meeting point of the two parts of the main line . . . will be somewhere in the vicinity of Salt Lake" (Railroad Across the Continent 1868:11).

Adding to the confusion, however, was Secretary Browning's subsequent October 20, 1868 approval of a map submitted by the Central Pacific indicating that the company intended to complete its rail line all the way to the mouth of Echo Canyon. Browning, in turn, wrote to Union Pacific President Oliver Ames, directing him to "cause the Union Pacific railroad as already located to that point [Echo summit], so as to unite and form a continuous line with the Central Pacific Railroad." Less than a month later, on January 6, 1869, Browning repeated these instructions (printed in Congressional Globe [CG], April 5, 1869, p. 496). Had this provision held sway, Golden Spike National Historic Site might now be located farther east at Echo Summit. But, as Michigan Senator Jacob Howard acknowledged when these letters were read on the Senate floor:

In spite of this, however, it seems that the Union Pacific Railroad Company has passed Echo summit, has thought fit to diverge its line north of the line thus approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and that line runs within one or three miles at various spots of the approved line, the two routes thus passing each other, and leaving a question as to the legal right of the parties, one which is to be settled either by the courts or by an act of Congress [CG, April 5, 1869:496].

Early in March, 1869, newly elected President Ulysses Grant summoned Grenville Dodge to the White House in order to tell him that if the railroads themselves could not quickly agree on a point of junction, then Congress would do it for them. Soon thereafter, Dodge met Central Pacific's chief engineer, Samuel Montague, to discuss the problem. The two engineers agreed to meet at Promontory Summit, a decision that outraged Union Pacific President Ames because the UP had already sold bonds based on completing the line farther to the west (Ames 1969:316).

In April of 1869, the Senate began debating a joint resolution sent over from the House that sought to specify a connecting point for the two rail lines. Senator Sherman acknowledged that this point had previously been "left undetermined in order to induce each road to hasten the completion of its end." Continuing, Sherman explained that the need to "fix the point of junction . . . grows out of the fact that these two rival lines are pushing their work, one westward and the other eastward, and they have already crossed each other in the grading of the road." Sherman moreover contended that both railroad companies were doing so in order to claim greater subsidies from the government (CG, April 5, 1869:496). The race essentially had worked too well, and now the situation required the federal government to quickly raise the checkered flag.

In the Senate, debate initially focused on the right of either line to build to a certain point. Then on April 9, Senator Howard explained that since the joint resolution had been under consideration, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific had reached their own agreement about the connecting point. "It seems that the discussions in this body have suggested to those parties the necessity of coming to an agreement among themselves," observed Howard. The Michigan senator then offered a substitute amendment to the joint resolution that reflected the companies' decision:

The common terminus of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads shall be at or near Ogden; and the Central Pacific Railroad Company shall pay for and own the railroad from the terminus aforesaid to Promontory summit, at which point the rails shall meet and connect and form one continuous line [CG, April 9, 1869:667-668].

That same day, Collis P. Huntington of the Central Pacific had met with Dodge and two Union Pacific stockholders, Samuel Hopper and Rowland Hazard, in Washington, D.C. to reach the agreement about connecting at Promontory. Reputedly, Huntington made the first move by offering to purchase the Union Pacific track between Promontory and Ogden. Should the Union Pacific decline these terms, Huntington stressed that the Central Pacific would lay its track to Ogden anyway (Ames 1969:317; Athearn 1969:28). The portion of the agreement that was pertinent to Promontory read:

The Union Pacific company shall complete the track to the summit of Promontory Point [Summit] to which the Central shall build from the west, and the Central Pacific company shall pay to the Union the cost of the road without rolling stock from the terminus near Ogden as aforesaid to said Promontory Point, and shall pay to the Union one half the cost of the grading by the Union between the summit of Promontory and Monument Point done at this date [Ames 1969:317].

With respect to the federal subsidy, by buying the Union Pacific line from the terminus at Ogden to Promontory Summit, the Central Pacific would receive the bonds and land grants associated with that mileage (Ames 1969:317). Congress affirmed the companies' agreement by passing Joint Resolution 16. On April 10, 1869, the measure became law, thereby ensuring that the meeting point of the two lines would be Promontory Summit — a place "star-touched by the luck of geographic location and Congressional resolution" (McCague 1964:308; see also 16 Stat., 56).