Westward from Ogden in Utah the Union Pacific route to California is
continued upon the Southern Pacific system, that company having
absorbed the original Central Pacific road. It passes Corinne, the
largest Gentile city in Utah, and then through the Promontory
Mountains, on the northern verge of Great Salt Lake. It was at
Promontory Point on May 10, 1869, that the railway builders of this
original transcontinental line, coming both ways, met, and joined the
tracks. The last tie was made of California rosewood, trimmed with
silver, and the last four spikes were of silver and gold. The final
golden spike was driven with a silver hammer in the presence of a
large and silent assemblage. The locomotives coming from the East and
the West met, as Bret Harte has written:
"Pilots touching--head to head
Facing on the single track;
Half a world behind each back!"
Beyond, the Great American Desert, an alkaline waste, is crossed, the
State of Nevada is entered, the Humboldt River is followed for awhile,
and then Truckee River is ascended through the Pleasant Valley,
leading into the Sierra Nevada, the lower mountain slopes covered with
magnificent forests and the railroad protected from avalanches by
snow-sheds. The Humboldt River has no outlet. It spreads out in an
extensive sheet of water known as the "Carson Sink" and evaporates. At
Reno is the Nevada State University, and as this is a silver region
there are extensive smelting mills. Thirty-one miles southward is
Carson, the capital of Nevada, and twenty-one miles farther the famous
silver-mining town of Virginia City, with ten thousand people, built
half-way up a steep mountain slope and completely surrounded by
mountains. Virginia City stands directly over the noted Comstock Lode,
and here are the Bonanza Mines, which were such prolific producers in
the great silver days. This lode has produced over $450,000,000,
chiefly silver, and it is drained by the Sutro Tunnel, nearly four
miles long, which cost $4,500,000 to construct. Nearby, on the
California boundary, and at six thousand feet elevation, is the
beautiful Lake Tahoe, one of the loveliest sheets of water in the
world, twenty-two miles long, very deep, surrounded by snow-clad
mountains, and yet it never freezes, its outlet being the Truckee
River. In a region of many lakes, it is known as "the gem of the high
Sierras." To the westward of Reno is another lovely sheet of water,
Donner Lake, embosomed in the lap of towering hills, its name coming
from an early explorer, Captain Donner, who, with many of his party,
perished on its shores during a heavy snowstorm in 1846. The top of
the Sierra Nevada is crossed through a tunnel at Summit Station,
elevated seven thousand feet, and beyond there is a complete change
both in climate and vegetation, the descent being rapid and the
transition from arctic snows to sub-tropical flowers very quick. The
line is in many places carved out of the faces of startling
precipices, and here it rounds the famous beetling promontory known as
Cape Horn. Then, coming down among the orchards and vineyards, it
enters the wide and fertile Sacramento Valley, and almost at sea-level
comes to the capital of California, the city of Sacramento, built on
the eastern bank of Sacramento River just below the mouth of the
American River. It is a busy city with thirty thousand people, and has
a large and handsome State Capitol.