Happy Anniversary, Transcontinental Railroad

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The lines from east and west were joined 143 years ago today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad

The construction and operation of the line was authorized by the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 during the American Civil War. Congress supported it with 30-year U.S. government bonds and extensive land grants of government-owned land. Completion of the railroad was the culmination of a decades-long movement to build such a line. It was one of the crowning achievements in the crossing of plains and high mountains westward by the Union Pacific and eastward by the Central Pacific. Opened for through traffic on May 10, 1869, with the driving of the "Last Spike" at Promontory Summit, Utah, the road established a mechanized transcontinental transportation network that revolutionized the population and economy of the American West.

[elleng]

1. YOU GOT IT!

I checked it out today too, because its the birthday of a friend and colleague with whom I worked at Interstate Commerce Commission, largely on major railroad mergers! So I gave him a Happy SilverSpike Day greeting!