In 1869, Tritle was appointed a commissioner overseeing the new transcontinental railroad and later presented Nevada's silver spike during the completion ceremony at Promontory, Utah.
The Golden spike that was used to commemorate the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad | Pennsylvania Railroad | Union Pacific Railroad | Underground Railroad | New York Central Railroad | Alaska Railroad | Erie Railroad | Central Pacific Railroad | Illinois Central Railroad | First Transcontinental Railroad | Lehigh Valley Railroad | Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad | Grand Funk Railroad | Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad | Wabash Railroad | Railroad switch | Missouri Pacific Railroad | Boston and Albany Railroad | New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad | Metro-North Railroad | Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad | Atlantic Coast Line Railroad | Albany and Susquehanna Railroad | Oregon Pacific Railroad | Great Railroad Strike of 1877 | Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad | Central Railroad of New Jersey | Boston and Lowell Railroad | West Shore Railroad | Western Pacific Railroad |
The mural also depicted: the “California Gold Rush; the 1860s building by Union Pacific of the western First Transcontinental Railroad; the disastrous 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire; and further into the twentieth century with the city's Second World War contributions, and culminating in the 1945 signing of the United Nations Charter in the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.
The locomotive was the Central Pacific locomotive that met with Union Pacific No. 119 at Promontory Point, Utah on May 10, 1869 for the driving of the golden spike, commemorating the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad.
Despite its name, the Central Branch Union Pacific was not associated with the Union Pacific until 1880; it was to be one of several eastern branches of the First Transcontinental Railroad, of which the Union Pacific constituted the main line between Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska and Ogden, Utah where it connected with the Central Pacific Railroad.
As the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads approached their historic meeting place at Promontory Summit early in 1869, a group of former Union Army officers and some determined non-Mormon merchants from Salt Lake City decided to locate a Gentile town on the Union Pacific line, believing that the town could compete economically and politically with the Saints of Utah.
With the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, waves of new immigrants arrived in the Great Plains, and cultivation increased significantly.
Afterward they took jobs with the Union Pacific, which was building the Transcontinental Railroad west from Omaha, Nebraska.
The new judge left Nebraska in August 1869, taking the newly completed Transcontinental Railroad to California before boarding a ship south to the mouth of the Colorado River.
The presence of the Saints in the valley was useful in the concluding efforts of the Transcontinental Railroad, where Promontory, Utah served as the connecting point of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines.
The First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, when Central Pacific's line joined Union Pacific's at Promontory Summit.
One ceiling mural by San Francisco artist Harry Hopps depicts the driving of the Golden Spike north of Salt Lake City at "Promontory Summit" signifying the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869.
The driving of the golden spike completed the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit in 1869.
Golden spike, the final spike of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States, driven in 1869
The "High Dome", painted blue and lettered "American Railroads 1869–1969", was part of the 1969 Golden Spike Centennial Limited to mark the centennial of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S. Both cars later ran on the final Capitol Limited run April 30, 1971 when the train was discontinued at the start of Amtrak.