The Central Pacific Railroad had blasted through the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the summer of 1868,

and then spent the second half of the year marching through the sweltering heat and dust of the Nevada desert.

As the winter of 1868, 1869 arrived and the railroad crossed into the great Salt Lake Desert of northern Utah,

everyone involved understood the end was near.

The most ambitious public works program in the short history of the United States

was almost complete. Representatives of both railroads spent months haggling over the exact spot

where the two railroads would meet. And while they debated in boardrooms and the halls of

Congress, until they finally reached a compromise in the spring of 1869,

the crews kept working.

The Central Pacific made up for lost time from the mountain campaign by pouring on speed as it crossed the Nevada desert.

At the Wyoming-Utah border, the opposite was happening for the Union Pacific.

The UP had raced westward across Nebraska, northern Colorado, and southern Wyoming.

It had battled its share of obstacles, like Sherman Summit and the Dale Creek Gorge, and its U.S. Army escort had fought actual battles with Native American war parties.

The actions were more like skirmishes, but the workers had lived in constant fear during the trek through Wyoming.

The pace of construction stayed solid, despite the obstacles. And as the line approached Utah,

it faced its final major challenge, a pair of switchback canyons through the Wasatch

mountains. But before the workers tackled the challenge, Union Pacific officials had to make a choice.

The other obstacle that had constantly plagued the railroad was the lawlessness of hell-on-wheels

towns which popped up every time the construction crew

established a major work site. By the end of 1868, rowdy, violent towns were popping up ahead

of the railroad in anticipation of the next stop on the line. At the Wyoming, Utah border,

one of those towns was Bear River City, and in the course of one night,

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