All aboard the Transcontinental Railroad!
This trip will take you down 90 miles of the original hand-constructed Transcontinental Railroad grade. You will pass through multiple ghost towns, seeing old foundations, earthworks, culverts, and trestles, which carried the old steam engines, passengers, and Western adventurers into new and undiscovered country.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a law creating a transcontinental railroad to connect the East to the West for rapid expansion and the transfer of goods. At the time, it took over a year to travel across the country by wagon.
Two companies set to the task. Union Pacific Railroad started in Omaha, Nebraska, and laid track heading west. Central Pacific Railroad started in Sacramento, California, and began to lay track heading east. Both companies were new and required hiring thousands of workers, most of whom were of Chinese, Mormon, or Irish descent.
The project took six years and 1,800 miles of railroad track to complete. Finally, on May 10th, 1869, the two rail lines met at Promontory, Utah. Today, the spot is known as the Golden Spike National Historical Park.
Townsites popped up all over the West as men and women flocked to start businesses and build their legacies next to the railroad line. Many townsites, such as Omaha, Cheyenne, Reno, and Sacramento, became prominent cities.
The towns in Utah's West Desert -- the area you'll travel through on this tour -- weren't so lucky. The original railroad line crossed the West Desert and hosted 28 sidings, stations, and associated towns that serviced up to ten trains a day.
This section, called the Promontory Branch, was built by Central Pacific Railroad, which was later purchased by South Pacific Railroad, which built a shorter route across the Great Salt Lake in 1904, called the Lucin Cutoff. As trains passed through the West Desert, townsites became fewer with further between. Homes and businesses were abandoned due to the lack of water and commerce.
Use of this section of the Transcontinental Railroad ended at the start of World War II, when the rails along the Promontory Branch were removed to be melted down for war efforts.
In 1992, the Bureau of Land Management was deeded the Promontory Branch of the Transcontinental Railroad and began to manage the railroad grade as a National Backcountry Byway.
Tour Sponsors BLM Utah sponsors this tour. From spectacular red-rock canyons and roaring rivers to high mountain peaks and expansive salt flats across 23 million acres in Utah, BLM public lands are unparalleled in scenic beauty.
Find More Tours Near You If you are interested in more audio tours in Utah, check out
Mount Nebo National Scenic Byway and many others at
TravelStorys.com. Every place has a story.
Location: Utah
Travel Type: Driving
Tour Duration: 7.5 hours
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