At 3:42 pm local time on May 10, 1869, Harold Trumbill, chief civil engineer of the Pacific and Illinois Union Railroad, raised a rusty, weathered 22-pound sledge hammer high above his perspiration-covered head. Two seconds later, after yelling, 'Long live PIUR,' drove a 94-carat golden railroad spike into a tar-coated railroad tie marking the completion of the cross-country track. This is how most history books describe it.
After this last spike was driven home, the workers, some laying track from the west and some from the east, paused and gathered on the locomotives that had been following the construction with necessary supplies, took the now-famous photo from this small Utah town (pictured above).
Two weeks ago, historian Lake Donovan, author of Transcontinental Railroad: I'm not Buying It, uncovered a photo (below) showing an alignment problem with the famous tracks that has challenged the timely completion of the railroad and sent shock waves through the railroad history world.
"I was doing some research for another book due out this summer, called Transcontinental Railroad: Really? A Railroad Across the Whole Country? C'mon!, when I came across a photo (below) that was labeled on the back: 1869 miscue, Promontory Summit, May 10, do not show to anyone ... ever. Trumbill."
If the photo is authentic, and Donovan assures his critics there is no reason to believe it is not, it would explain why Trumbill, a perfectionist in every sense of the word, delayed the official opening of the railway for another two months.
"There is correspondence between Trumbill and Pacific and Illinois Union executives that question why locomotives were unable to pass," explained Donovan. "Trumbill didn't let trains use the tracks for for nearly eight weeks after the famous group photo was taken."
One of these letters, dated May 25, 1869, from Jedington Smithright, vice president of PIUR, read:
Dear Mr Trumbill,
I hope the Utah territory has welcomed you openly. I trust that you can find a decent tavern in the place. I write today to confirm that I received your daguerreotype of the completion of the railroad that has united our great country. Only a handful of years ago, we were split by a terrible war, brothers fighting brothers, fathers fighting sons, sons very upset when fathers shot them. This is a monumental symbol for our fragile and rebuilding emotional state. I ask now why construction continues when the photo you sent has clearly indicated the two sides, east and west, have met in Promontory Summit? I have attempted to travel by rail to Utah from our office in East St. Louis, but have been informed by rail workers that the route is impassible and that this is a direct order from you. Please, explain yourself my friend.
Jedington Smithright, Vice President
A letter from Trumbill to his wife Agitheena, if authentic, may support Donovan's photo discovery. It reads:
Dear my dearest Agitheena,
How I miss you dearly my lovely. I hope the rumors of you marrying Mr. Gordon Thomas Livingston are just that ... rumors. Despite the photo of our gallant railroad workers celebrating the completion of the railroad, which I am assured has reached New York, I have made a maddening, erroneous calculation. The great tracks coming from the east and the west did not successfully meet. I had the workers gather tightly for the photo so to cover up the unfortunate debacle. It was really just a simple mathematical mistake, carrying the one when I should have carried a two, or a three, I think. Please, pray for me.
Your loving husband (or ex-husband),
Harold Trumbill, Chief Engineer, Pacific and Illinois Union Railroad
Trumbill was eventually removed from his position at PIUR two days before the first locomotive passed over the golden spike in the Utah Territory. Company executives never discovered that the chief engineer had drastically miscalculated the track alignment and dismissed the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute graduate on "unquestionable grounds of insanity."
Above: The first attempt at the Transcontinental Railroad was slightly off, according to a recently uncovered photograph by historian Lake Donovan.
Above: The first attempt at the Transcontinental Railroad was slightly off, according to a recently uncovered photograph by historian Lake Donovan.
3 comments:
Yay im first to comment!
First of all, the ties in the "unaligned picture" are concrete ties and are therefore not the ties used for transcontinental railroad construction.
Not to mention steel rail and tie plates
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