each other, the point of connection
being known as Promontory. Afterwards the two companies made an
arrangement whereby the Union Pacific relinquished fifty-three miles of
road to the Central, thus fixing on Ogden as the western terminus of the
one line and the eastern terminus of the other. The popular belief is
that the fifty-three miles were obtained by the Central Pacific directors
as an acknowledgement of the greater engineering difficulties they had to
overcome in laying their part of the track, and that they served a
handicapping purpose at the end of this wonderful railroad competition.

The placing of the final tie on the Pacific lines, as has been hinted,
was a ceremonious undertaking. The event took place on Monday, March
10th, 1869. Representatives were present from almost every part of the
Union, and the construction parties, not yet wholly dispersed, made up a
greater crowd than had been seen at Promontory before or is likely ever
to be seen there again--for, with the fixing of the termini at another
point, the glory of the place has departed. The connecting tie had been
made of California laurel. It was beautifully polished, and bore a
series of inscribed silver plates. The tie was carefully placed, and
over it the rails were laid by picked men on behalf of each company. The
spikes were then inserted--one of gold, silver, and iron, from Arizona;
another of silver, from Nevada; and a third of gold, from California.
President Stanford, of the Central Pacific, armed with a hammer of solid
silver, drove the last spike, the blow falling precisely at noon, and the
news of the completion of the road being flashed abroad as it fell. Then
the two locomotives, one from the west and the other from the east, drew
up to each other on the single line, coming into gentle collision, that
they in their way, in the pleasing conceit of their drivers, might
symbolise the fraternisation that went on. It does not spoil the story
of the ceremony to state that the laurel tie, with its inscriptions and
its magnificent mountings, was only formally laid, and that it became
from that day a relic to be officially cherished; and it should be added
that the more serviceable tie which replaced it was cut into fragments by
men eager to have some memento of the occasion. Other ties for a time
shared the same fate, until splinters of what was claimed to be "the last
tie laid" became as common as pieces of the Wellington boots the