By the summer of 1868, the race to build the Transcontinental Railroad had entered its final phase.

In the east, the Union Pacific marched across Wyoming. With Thomas Durant

sidelined and the Ames brothers now in control of the operation, construction had accelerated

dramatically. Civil War veterans Grenville Dodge and Jack Casement were brought on to ensure the

Union Pacific won the race, and they brought their military discipline to the crews.

But that didn't mean the discipline was ironclad.

Along the rails,

Hell on Wheels towns cropped up and brought nothing but whiskey and vice.

Gamblers and con artists virtually ran the towns, and violence followed. In Julesburg,

Cheyenne, and Laramie, the railroad or vigilance committees had to restore order with bloodshed.

Meanwhile, Native American warriors grew bolder in their attacks on the railroad in the hopes of

hampering or halting construction. Dodging raids became a constant part of attacks on the railroad in the hopes of hampering or halting construction.

Dodging raids became a constant part of life on the prairie.

Through it all, the Union Pacific kept moving. It scaled Sherman's summit and erected one of the

most audacious bridges across the Dale Creek Gorge. Mile by mile it headed toward the border of Utah.

Dodge and Casement pushed their workers hard because they soon discovered that their rival,

the Central Pacific, had crested the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

On June 18, 1868, the Central Pacific ran its first full passenger train across the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Engineer Hank Small took the controls of the Antelope locomotive and left Sacramento at 6.30 a.m.

Behind him were three passenger cars, a baggage car, and a box car. On board were

passengers who were eager to see the impossible become real. The train chugged uphill into the mountains.

By 9.50 a.m., it had climbed nearly 2,500 feet to Colfax, where the grade steepened.

...