Bridging the Transcontinental Gap

I've got a few more pictures of the Golden Spike National Monument in my holster so I figured I'd pull 'em out, and throw them into the massive sea of internet imagery. This is Sara and the Zoe and I in front of one of the cool new old trains. One of these days I'll find myself at the monument again when they actually fire one of these babies up and move it up and down the track. I remember that being really cool when I saw it as a Boy Scout.

This first picture here is Zoe and I in front of the original plaque that was put up in 1943 before all the visitor centerage and replicary was installed. I really like how the plaque says it was at this spot that the country was bound together by iron rail. That's pretty cool. Not to ruin the magic, but like I previewed in the prior posting, even though the driving of the golden spike marked the ending of the rail line from Omaha, Nebraska to San Francisco. There was no railroad bridge over the Missouri river until March of 1873. Until then, transcontinental passengers had to hop off the train in Council Bluffs, Iowa, cross the river by boat, and board a new train in Omaha. In 1939 a 56 foot upside down golden spike replica was installed at the 0.0 milepost of the original transcontinental railroad in Council Bluffs. Curse us for not stopping to get a picture with it when we traveled through that area a bazillion times back in the Wisconsin to Utah driving days (I done stole this picture from the world wide web). That's a really cool giant upside down spike.

Like all other Utahns with a speck of class, I was relieved when it was announced that the "Crossroads of the West" design was successfully voted upon as the Utah state quarter. That's waaaaaay better than that dorky snowboard one. What was the motto that went with that one? Something like "Utah: Old Conservatives Trying to Be Extreme". I didn't hate the beehive one though, mostly because I really like honey. Did you hear that the US Mint is starting to put National Parks on the backs of the quarters now? That'll be sort of fun. I think the reasoning behind this is that its the only way that the government can force we spend-happy Americans to actually save money. Honestly, how many of us have a stash of state quarters in our top drawers worth a total of $12.50? I do, and I'm proud of it.