2002-09-20

Utah - Space rockets and golden spikes

Promontory, Utah. The trans-continental railroad that connected our country from east to west was completed here on May 10, 1869. The task was so large that there was not one but two railroad companies involved in the construction and building from opposites sides of the country with the plan of meeting in the middle. Central Pacific Railway built east from Sacramento, California and the Union Pacific Railway built west from Omaha, Nebraska. The U.S. government gave the railroads incentives in the form of low-interest loans and generous grants of land (20 square miles for each mile of track laid.) The incentives worked and both railroads entered into an outright frenzy of competition to claim as much of the land for themselves as possible. Progress increased from four miles of track per day (considered remarkably swift at the time) to as much as an astounding ten miles per day. Competition was so intense that the two railroads actually passed each other rather than meeting up. It took the intervention of president U.S. Grant to bring a halt to their construction and join the two railroad lines. Promontory, Utah was chosen as the meeting place because it was the middle point between the extents of the existing railroad lines at the time.

The whole country was transfixed as the big moment arrived to complete the railroad by driving the last spikes into the final railroad tie. Politicians gave their speeches and a lengthy prayer followed while the rest of the country waited by telegraph machines for the three dots that would signal the event was completed.

You can imagine what the anticipation was like. When the big moment came Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific Railroad, raised his hammer, swung and....missed! Then Thomas Durant, vice president of the Union Pacific Railroad took his turn and....missed! Embarrassed, they handed their hammers to James Strobridge and Samuel Reed, two railroad work crew bosses, to finish the job.

Thiokol is nearby and worth the visit for their rocket display. Thiokol has been a pioneer in solid-fuel rocket engines for decades but they are best known as the builder of the booster engines in the infamous space shuttle Challenger disaster.

Some road signs put up by Thiokol to remind us to drive safely:

Behind the wheel
Don't play the clown
Keep the sunny side up
And the rubber side down

If you drive
When you're tired
You could be snoozin'
For a bruisin'

One of Thiokol's buildings. Look closely and you can see what appear to be tubes attached to the building. I'm guessing they must be emergency evacuation tubes.