Documenting United States History

Document 13.1 Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad

at Promontory Point

1869

The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 offered free land and monetary incentives to railroad

developers in return for the completion of a transcontinental line. On May 10, 1869, at

Promontory Point, Utah, the transcontinental line was completed. The images below—an

engraving from a magazine and a photograph—capture this event.

The New Economy

t oPIc I

the Granger Collection, New York.

16-G-99-1-1, Still

picture

records;

photographs and other

Graphic Materials;

recor

ds of the Office of the Secretary

of

agricultur

e;

recor

d Group 16; National

ar

chives.

308 ChapTEr 13 | a Gilded aGe | period Six 1865 –1898 TopIC^ I^ |^ the New economy^309

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