The Golden Spike: How a Photograph Celebrated the Transcontinental Railroad
Railroad foreman Jack Casement walks by Russell’s field darkroom wagon near the tracks in Utah In the darkroom the photographer sensitized the plate in a bath of silver nitrate for several minutes before placing it in a lightproof wooden plate holder The next steps were to insert the plate holder into a slot in the camera box and while the plate was still wet to aim the camera at the scene to be photographed Then the photographer removed a dark slide from the plate holder to expose the plate to the still-covered camera lens There was no shutter so the photographer took off the lens cap to expose the plate to the light for several seconds The photographer then replaced the lens cap reinserted the dark slide removed the plate holder and took it inside the dark tent or wagon He or she then took the plate out of the holder and developed it in the dim orange light coming through the small safe light window in the tent Despite the difficulties and awkwardness of photography at the time everyone involved agreed that it had to be used to document the historic venture And in addition to the historical significance of the railroad photos there was money to be made when photographers sold their images It was
becoming obvious that simple words and drawings were no longer enough to portray major news events The photographic medium which had been invented earlier in the century also had to play its part In 1867 two years before the completion of the first transcontinental railroad a Philadelphia magazine declared Nothing seems beyond the reach of photography It is the railway and the telegraph of art The telegraph detects and catches the thief and so does photography The railways carry us to points afar and so does photography in fact it does more As late as March 1869 no meeting place had been established So the two track-laying operations kept going Finally they passed right by each other in the Utah wilderness Both companies made a lot of money for each mile of track they laid So their directors decided to keep construction going until Congress chose the place where the two lines of track would connect In the words of Grenville M Dodge the Union Pacific’s chief engineer the two lines were now running side by side and in some places one line was on a raised embankment right above the other THE RAILROAD AND AMERICAN INDIANS As the Union Pacific wound its way westward in the 1860s it helped to bring more and more whites into the Indian-inhabited lands lying west of the Mississippi River It disrupted and forever changed the way American Indians had lived for thousands of years At first Plains tribes mostly left the railroad workers alone But a series of battles between U S soldiers and Plains tribes began in the mid-1860s And as the railroad pushed westward warriors harassed the railroad workers Small groups of Sioux and Cheyenne raided work sites and stole horses cows and other livestock They also killed some railroad surveyors who had pushed ahead of the work crews to scout out the best routes for the tracks In the meantime the Union Pacific had a tribal ally the Pawnee who were bitter enemies of the Sioux The company often hired Pawnee men for protection against other tribes In return the railroad allowed Pawnee people to ride the work trains for free Also in October 1866 company executives hired some Pawnee to stage a mock raid on a train to entertain politicians and other dignitaries riding inside
Russell photographed Shoshone Indians who had given the Union Pacific right of way to land in Wyoming Because of the closeness of the two lines the tens of thousands of workers involved along with their tents wagons animals and equipment covered several square miles For a distance of 30 miles 48 km to the west of the small town of Corinne Utah the Salt Lake Deseret News reported the two giant camps present the appearance of a mighty army As far as the eye can reach are to be seen almost a continuous line of tents wagons and men Russell and the Central Pacific’s head photographer Alfred A Hart worked almost constantly to record images of the vast scene According to historian Stephen E Ambrose the two men were inspired to do some of their best work here They were up before dawn setting their cameras getting their plates ready taking pictures through the day and keeping at it until the light faded Everyone who was there knew that except for the war there had never before been in North America and never would be again a sight like this one
Finally in early April Congress picked the location for the junction of the two railway lines The much anticipated event would take place at Promontory Summit a wide mountain pass 66 miles 106 km northwest of Salt Lake City The date was set for May 8 1869 although the ceremony was later delayed by two days In anticipation of the impending event trains carrying railroad company executives and special guests departed for Promontory from cities far to the east and west Railroad and telegraph workers began preparing to broadcast the big event At the exact moment that the final spike was put in place an electrical signal would be transmitted by telegraph The message DONE would almost instantly tell a waiting world that the two rail lines had become one The Champagne Photo became the most famous of the many glass plate exposures taken May 10 1869 at Promontory The railroads photographers were also headed for their historic endeavor Russell Hart and their assistants prepared to capture a visual record of the momentous event Their photos would need to be developed and printed The prints would have to be taken to newspapers in cities many miles from
