A miraculous thing about human nature is resilience. We possess unwavering determination to move forward, progress, build. Phenomenal examples can be found throughout history of how people adapt to difficult situations and develop solutions. Paramount among those examples is our desire to connect with one another across vast distances.

In American history travel and technology have propelled our culture. When some of our ancestors left the familiarity of the east coast for the unchartered west, they built up the country, but created a divide within it. The government and scientists worked to find a solution to this great distance. The answer came in the first Transcontinental Railroad in the U.S., built in the 1860s. It linked the quickly expanding Pacific coast California with the network of railways in the Eastern United States. It became the largest travel connection until Americans took to the skies, and was celebrated with the ceremony connecting the pieces of railway on May 10, 1869 with the Golden Spike event at Promontory Summit, Utah. 

This momentous industrial accomplishment revolutionized transportation and the growth of population and economy in the American West. Building of the Transcontinental Railroad was authorized by the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 and backed by the federal government. It was part of a lengthy effort to expand the country and one of President Abraham Lincoln’s many achievements, completed four years after he died. Enormous effort was needed for the project, including labor and advancements in engineering to cross over one thousand miles, long plains, and high mountains. Work was done by the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad, privately chartered and federally backed.

The Transcontinental Railroad followed the main trails used to open the West, including the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails, along with the Pony Express. It went from Council Bluffs, Iowa along the PlatteRiver in Nebraska, crossed the Rocky Mountains at the GreatDivideBasin into Wyoming, then went south through Utah and Nevada in the Great Basin, to the Sierras and Sacramento. The Central Pacific Railroad covered 690 miles of track from Sacramento, California to Promontory Summit in Utah and the Union Pacific laid 1,087 miles of track starting in Council Bluffs and ending with the connection to the Central Pacific at Promontory Summit. Though the original railroad did not connect to the Eastern U.S. system, trains were ferried across the Missouri River, the Union Pacific Missouri River Bridge was built in 1872 wholly connecting the coasts.

The Transcontinental Railroad is considered the greatest American technological achievement of the 19th century. As with many adult ventures, miniature and toy versions of trains have been created to play with and commemorate historical efforts. In Geppi’s Entertainment Auctions next Morphy auction, multiple trains and train sets are being sold. Among those is a pressed steel Buddy L prototype outdoor train toy. The eight piece railroad is dated circa 1926 and is in excellent condition. Click here to see all of the offerings in Morphy’s spring toy sale happening April 4-5, 2008.