TRACKS OF THE IRON HORSE

47 in the afternoon of the tenth day of May in the year 1800 and sickle Drummond Burris Summit Utah Territory dn't finish it they began it and it's still going on [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] dumb those blows on the last spike have been a long time coming [Music] grass Avast a thousand miles and more waiting from the broad Missouri River bottom it stretches 500 miles of high plains and blowing grasslands reaching up to the unknown and frightening great stony mountains the unexplored wonders of the Yellowstone country rainforests timber and lush green valleys of the new Northwest waiting waiting while the colonists eked out a foothold on the atlantic shore california's waiting to known only by sea captains and spanish missions for centuries waiting while the new nation grows a thousand miles and more of promise waiting my name is long major Steven H first officer US Army topographical engineers Department of the Missouri in 1820 I led a scientific expedition from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains Lewis and Clark had gone on before more to the north our troop of botanist geologists and engineers had gone to evaluate this land in the interest of the Union we move on there's hot death and my report that will be this country's name and on the maps we make the great American desert founded on the east by the Missouri River and on the west by the Rocky Mountains shall be known as the great American desert we are not the first and we are not the last trappers fur traders missionaries and other explorers will come but the settlers know the settlers won't come perhaps it is our desert they fear perhaps so major long your description of the region is gospel for many years and the settlers don't come but they come to the east from Europe they come to the east and fill up the cities between 1800 and 1860 more than five million come packed like cattle and steerage herded through immigration stacked six stories deep on New York's Lower East Side they fill up the cities and they dream of land there is land in West word comes back of rich farming land in Oregon Oregon Fever Aragon our busts a few thousand break away from the crowded East and then gold gold in California California here we come [Music] ten miles 15 miles the day we left Missouri 81 days ago and I figure with luck we'll make it in another three months one foot in front of the other that's the only way to do it it's a hard way there's good land along the way and were tempted to stop but there's no way to get a clump to market and there's no way to get our supplies back east there's river boats and railroads but there's no railroad here that's for sure and the rivers are few or between and so it goes the westward movement wagons West moving through but not yet to that thousand miles of promise before this land can ever be settled the West needs transportation and it needs it now not the sort to miss this choice opportunity the voices of the politicians are raised eighteen hundred and fifty Illinois senator Steven a Douglas the tide of immigration and civilization must be permitted to roll onward decisive measures should be adopted immediately to ensure the completion of this great railroad communication Missouri's senator Thomas Hart Benton echoes the call I should be in favor of seeing an army of laborers employed upon it at once there would be room for 50,000 men to work without elbowing each other Douglass says let it begin in Illinois Bentham says let Missouri be its source others champion Wisconsin Jefferson Davis Secretary of the army soon to be the president of the Confederate States as his own preference the route of the 32nd parallel is the most practical and economic route for a railroad each section of the country wants the railroad to be its own soon it becomes North versus south and the railroad becomes another issue driving the nation apart northern route versus southern troops the drums grow louder slave versus free abolition anger and then what suffers fire at all April 12 1861 [Music] three weeks later eleven southern states seceded in Washington southern congressman pack their bags and head for home if anything good can be said to have come from brother fighting brother at is this all opposition to a northern route for the great national enterprise vanishes when the South Sea scenes July 1st 1862 Abraham Lincoln signs the Pacific Railroad act the line of said railroad shall commence in the territory of Nebraska thence running westerly upon the most direct route to meet and connect with the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California and the Central Pacific Railroad is authorized to construct a railroad from the Pacific coast to form a continuous line of railroad from the Missouri River to California [Music] Omaha shall be the starting point a raw frontier village huddled on the Missouri River mud flats with much hoopla and ballyhoo ground is broken and work grinds to a halt almost at once there is no money there are no investors major Long's great American desert is still too much with food Congress must act again the lamb grant is doubled on the battlefield the north is finally victorious Lee surrenders peace the nation looks west and another great national drama begins from Omaha we started barely a thousand men strong by the time you were done he were 10,000 strung out for a good 200 miles across Indian Territory Thai gangs went ahead puttin down the ties and we came behind laying down the rails Kushner in the track ahead of us it was a real international enterprise bales come from Pittsburgh - Tyson Wisconsin and the Swift from Ireland the graters went on ahead prepared the way stringing up the bridges and cuttin down the hills those fine boys did it the hard way with a pict mule cart a good aim shovel out of her Eames was president of the railroad you know we come behind a swamp and across the plains Lane I in in place we made good time some days we laid three miles attract some days more Christmas 1867 we we spent in Cheyenne freeze and half to death that were Redskins he kept a thousand wafers and use them more than once habit there were good times to the photographer's came and took our picture and we chine up the engine and I look important and on payday heheh what but that was a time to let go [Music] those canvass towns at pallidus had plenty of ways to spend our money exchange we didn't stop that was 1868 he was in the mountains and was total and blast pitch and Chapman and the devil take the hindmost in the spring of 69 and we were free and clear and racing toward the Central Pacific boys across the Utah Territory promontory Utah Territory a windswept desolate place where the two halves of this nation are to be joined wooden shanties line promontories one Street the SAP still dripping from their green wood officials and construction engineers from both lines are here the great event is near the rest of the nation will hear the message by telegraph the last rail is set and the last iron spike is driven home prayers are offered we have got done praying the word is tapped out coast to coast and exactly at 12:47 p.m. [Applause] [Applause] [Music] Chicago the word is heard done done bells ring in San Francisco done in the Crouch cheer and Washington to all the world done the Pacific Railway is done [Music] Oscar F Davis is money you never heard of me but if I do say so myself I've done more to tame the West Bend Bat Masterson and well Bill Hickok rule together you see I was laying commissioner for the railroad and that means get out and sell the lands boys bring the settlers in Oscar F Davis same the way to do it I use posters like this and like this permit millions of them you can't run a railroad without people to ship their Freight on it to ride on it and we brought him I sent my agents all over the east to sell the West send them to European settle in the West that's what we thought gave a maps and books and rich farming lands free lands cheap lands we didn't care if they bought our lands or homesteaded free as long as they came and they did you bet they did we built special cards we even gave them special trains sent out guides with them to help him find the land train loads full of settlers by 1879 I sold nearly 2 million acres hundreds of thousands of people by 1880 Nebraska's population stood at 450,000 and I'd take some pride in that those weren't just numbers mr. Davis those were families like mine we came in 79 dirt farmers and we took this land and we made it provide the sod we broke with it we built our home there's no timber so we use solder that's not much to look at that it was our own others built the pound drugstore no sweets blacksmiths school [Music] further west it was cattle millions of head coming to your railroad and the crops are they we're good corn and wheat the crops the town's the homes we made them and we made families we multiplied than we made this land through it all were the trains your trains mr. Davis you and us we had a kind of partnership the settlers and the trains we were a long way from nowhere out here on your desert we needed you to get our crops to market you needed us to do you know you did without us you go pro that was our partnership and through it all other trains opening new land to the settlers plow they tie the raw frontier to the hungry markets of the East bringing more people to the land still building not satisfied with one main line through the seventies through the 80s into the 90s pushing out branch lines and the land grows up there are good years and the wagons creeks with their load and the land grows up bad years grasshoppers they ate crumbs right down to the ground they were so thick we couldn't see the sky they ate the rope on the bucket the bark on the trees they ate everything and there are good years and the horses strain at their loads and bad years sometimes the rains didn't come only the Sun and then does [Music] and then panic financial the banks fail in 73 farm prices plummet during the eighties the Union Pacific has joined the Union to the Pacific has brought hundreds of thousands of settlers to the West but it isn't enough transcontinental railroads begin to fail and on October 13th 1893 the end to the first act for Union Pacific covers reorganize and sold at auction on the steps of the Omaha freight house the new leaders and new money are headed by a small man with a large mustache Edward Henry Harriman Harriman inspects his new property he meets the people who run it and he impresses them I've been a railroader all my life and my father before me but the first time I met that fella Harriman I'll never forget he wore little rimless glasses those eyes they could look right through you he was an Eastern urn he knew his business what he didn't know he surely set out to learn do you know what he did right right off he has an observation car tied on a locomotive and he has himself pulled slowly mind you and only during the day all the way from Omaha to the Pacific Ocean and he asks questions what wait are those rails how much corn will those cars hold he learned the railroad 1898 and Harriman returns to New York 25 million dollars is the initial outlay to rebuild rusting tracks and replace aging equipment new bridges tunnels fill in the valleys level off the hilltops replace the rail the ties the road bed and when it is done Harriman has rebuilt the Union Pacific rebuilt as he foresees for a vastly expanding West and to quicken that expansion Harriman goes to the farmers aid men like farmer Smith are hired to spread the gospel of better farming methods rolling colleges of Agriculture whistle stop to curious crowds from Bonner Springs Kansas the Union Gap Washington the latest in farm equipment how to grow better potatoes wheat sugar beets and how to dress up your apples from tree to pie food it's needed soon enough and in enormous quantities the war to make the world safe for democracy puts the testifier the Harriman's rebuilt Union Pacific doughboys heading for over there and munitions to back them up soon the nation's rail system is clogged though Union Pacific's modernized operation is equal to the challenge other roads bogged down in crisis President Woodrow Wilson actus December 26 1917 Wilson takes control of the nation's railroads Harriman has built well and the government groups huge quantities of vital trade over his rails then it's over over and Johnny does come marching home [Music] the railroads are returned to their owners a Los Angeles limited leaving on track five the Los Angeles limited track passenger train of the twenties Overland the columbine adult host limited these are the great famous six million American bride Union Pacific passenger trains in 1942 flappers walk down the aisles take the Grand Tour of the American West a little suit from the coal burner up front enjoy the luxury of a hot shower at 60 miles per hour across the wyoming flames tear loose the latest question jazz time the cat's pajamas america rebels industry grows the automobile is in its infancy so are the roads and railroads reach their peak as the great carriers of people on the moon a nation enjoying the fruits of its industry and in the men's club room car buy special wire the latest stock market reports stock market reports 1929 and it all grinds to a halt a Great Depression unemployed thousands of put to work saving a network of roads for a nation that is fast taking to the rubber tire and giving up the steel wheel fighting back Union Pacific introduces the world's first streamliner 1934 calls it the city of Salina she tours the nation what a marvel she'll do a hundred and ten but the rubber tire is here to stay slowly the Depression years pass the be replaced by a new and greater threat to the nation secure on December 7th 1941 along with the rest of the nation railroad goes to war again through the blowin wheat fields of Nebraska the pace quickens 25 new massive big boys steam locomotives largest in the world the move Sherman tanks and blockbusters Norden bomb sites and k-rations twice the tonnage of the First World War troop trains an endless dream and then [Applause] [Music] [Applause] today the Golden Spike rests in a safe in the Stanford Museum at Palo Alto California the place of its driving is a national historic monuments the immigrant homes secret trains have long since carried their last load of hopeful settlers west the West is settled but no one on the railroad is nostalgic these are third generation solid-state computers we have them locked in with more than 150 tella processing input stations located all over the railroad from here to California the computers job is to analyze exactly what's happening at all points at all times second by second [Music] yesterday we brought the pioneers today we're building the West with new industry that's one of Union Pacific's industrial development districts down there one of many oil and gas along with coal iron soda ash chemicals uranium and many other minerals are all part of Union Pacific's big stake in natural resource development in the West North Platte Nebraska those Irishmen wintered here but I don't think any of the old boys would recognize this here I can control two engines switching into 60 tracks down that hump making up 60 different trains I say I can control I should say that electronic computer back there it's pretty much automatic we've seen the steam engine come and go there's a lot of this nation's history wrapped up in those rails but a lot more of its future [Music] building a million new homes next year most of the lumber carried on those rails growing the steel carried on those rails a vital part of the west of community of interest moving [Music] [Music]