It is interesting to see that the Utah State Quarter has 2 trains on it.I thought that they were going to put the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City on it,as that is the first thing people think of when they mention about Utah. What is the background part of the design behind the trains? it looks like a tower of some sort. Aidan.
That's interesting,as Utah must have been one of the last places to get a railway connection in America,hence the 2 trains & the gap in the railway track. Aidan.
Promontory Utah where Transcontinental railroad across USA first completed in 1869. It significant for USA because nation linked by rail for first time coast to coast. Railroad all across country is significant, it not happen across Russia until 1905 but trains slow and army slow to get across country why Russia lost war of Japan that years.
^^ like he said, its were the the union pacific and central pacific railroads met and connected. It was a big deal because of the huge amount of work it represented...getting over some rough terrian. http://www.linecamp.com/museums/americanwest/western_clubs/transcontinental_railroad/transcontinental_railroad.html The golden spike was driven in the last tie plat to commemorate the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad at Promontory Summit as the completed first Transcontinental Railroad as directed by the Pacific Railway Act. The striking of the golden spike at Promontory Summit symbolized the nation was now joined with 3500 miles of Transcontinental Railroad. In all a Railroad from New York to California.
Not really on coins topic caution... Utah happened to be in the right place at the right time, between Nebraska (where the Union Pacific actually started construction westward) and California (where the Central Pacific started east). Interesting bit of trivia: Because there were incentives in place that compensated the companies by mile of track built, the UP and CP would have kept building right past each other had Congress not set Promontory Point as the official meeting place. There are numerous books on the topic of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and I like "Nothing Like it in the World" by Stephen Ambrose (who also wrote "Band of Brothers"). This project had scandals that rivaled the Enron debacle in its day, but at least it got something built! BTW there are no longer trains running at Promontory Point; that original line was bypassed when the Southern Pacific, the successor to the Central Pacific, threw a line straight across the Great Salt Lake. The entire route is now under the ownership of the Union Pacific also known in railroad circles as the "Omaha Borg".
Being a train collector & operator, I could'nt think of anything better than the two engines meeting on the utah coin. Perfect..
Ed,there's a Canadian silver $1 that has a train on it.I think it came out in 1986,but it is depicted steaming along,unlike the trains on the Utah State Quarter. Aidan.
Salt Lake Causeway or Lucin cutoff is greater engineering wonder than railroad at Promontory. Just fly over it sometime and you see why. It was completed in 1904 and shaved 2+ hours off of journey across USA.
I would suppose that anything associated with the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church would be objected to as a religious symbol. That would include the Salt Lake City Mormon Temple or a guy with three wives.
