Second Annual National Train Day

On May 10, 1869, the “golden spike” was hammered into place at Promontory Point, Utah, linking together the section of the transcontinental railroad that was built west from Omaha by the Union Pacific Rail Road Company, to the section built from Sacramento, California, by the Central Pacific Rail Road Company.

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This ain’t the actual golden spike, but it’s the replica of one that was used in a similar celebration on a railroad in Southern California, in 1876.

It was passed around a group of about 100 people who packed a small auditorium at Oakland’s Central Public Library on Sunday, May 10, 2009, by Ernie Chann, a local historian, who gave a darkly humorous presentation about the Chinese contribution to the building of the transcontinental railroad.

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The bevvy that built a nation: Ernie Chann holds up a teacup as he explains the secret of how the Chinese managed to accomplish so much.

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Dennis Evanosky, editor of the weekly freebie, the Alameda Sun, spoke about the linking of Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay Area by rail.

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The line went south through Stockton into the Central Valley, then tunneled west through some hills into Livermore, eventually linking up at Sunol with an already existing rail road. The end of the line was in the city of Alameda, which at the time was on a peninsula, not an island as it is today.

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Channeling the 1870s, Frankie Rhodes—historian of the Camron-Stanford House across the street from the library—explains the connection between the golden spike of 1869 and the historic building, which wasn’t in existence at the time. The Sacramento entrepreneur David Hewes, who was one of two people who sent a golden spike to Promontory Point—the other was a San Francisco newspaper editor—later rented the home as a suitable place in which to display works of art collected on a grand tour of Europe.

So. There you have it. My second National Train Day. Not a train trip spent in the company of railroad buffs, but a nice little foray into local history. The official National Train Day was held on Saturday—the website is here.

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--PEACE—

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