Transportation
4
Along this rugged escarpment in northern Utah, fading marks of early railroad construction survive even though the original iron rails and timber ties are gone. These remnants reflect the daunting engineering challenge of linking the Western states to the rest of the nation, a story of grand dreams and brute work, greed and glory. Joining Utah and California to the eastern states required laying track across 1,776 miles of deserts, mountains, and plains, a territory wider than all of Europe. The road west crosses old railroad grades five times before reaching the Last Spike Site, where the 1869 race to build the first transcontinental railroad ended.
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Thatcher, Utah · United States
