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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;umtrr-author, post: 193669, member: 5719&quot;]Not really on coins topic caution...</p><p><br /></p><p>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).</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There are numerous books on the topic of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad and I like &quot;Nothing Like it in the World&quot; by Stephen Ambrose (who also wrote &quot;Band of Brothers&quot;).&nbsp; This project had scandals that rivaled the Enron debacle in its day, but at least it got something built!</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; The entire route is now under the ownership of the Union Pacific also known in railroad circles as the &quot;Omaha Borg&quot;.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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