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The transcontinental railroad at 150 in pictures | Art and design

The transcontinental railroad at 150 – in pictures

In a new travelling exhibition, the significance of the transcontinental railroad, finished in 1869, will be celebrated in a series of images capturing its arduous construction through to its triumphant completion. The Race to Promontory: The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West exhibition is now at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City

Main image: East and West Shaking Hands at Laying of Last Rail, 1869. Photograph: Andrew J Russell/courtesy Union Pacific Railroad Museum

Wed 6 Feb 2019 07.00 GMT Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 14.30 GMT

  • Promontory Trestle Work and Engine No. 2, 1869

    The Race to Promontory: The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West is at Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah from 1 February to 26 May 2019. The exhibition is organised by the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa

  • Supply Trains, 1868

    From east to west, the Union Pacific line was photographed by Andrew J Russell, and west to east by Alfred A Hart, for the Central Pacific

  • Locomotive on Trestle, near American River, California, 1865

    In the decade following the civil war, Russell and Hart benefited from an unprecedented wave of government and corporate patronage that supported a legion of photographers working in the American west

  • Hanging Rock, Foot of Echo Cañon, 1868

    Their images also helped to define the unfamiliar landscapes beyond the Missouri river, capturing not only the engineering triumphs of the railroad, but the vast resources available for an expanding nation, as well as its pictorial beauty

  • Devil’s Slide, Union Pacific Railroad, Utah, after 1874

    The exhibition also includes a selection of works from the 19th-century Utah photographer Charles Savage from the University’s J Willard Marriott Library Special Collections

  • Rounding Cape Horn, California. Road to Iowa Hill from the river, in the distance, c 1866 (half of a stereograph)

  • The Wind Mill at Laramie, 1868

  • Piute Indians at Reno, 1868 (half of a stereograph)

  • Locomotive, on Turntable, 1865 (half of a stereograph)

  • Chinese Camp, at End of Track, 1868 (half of a stereograph)

    Chinese and Irish immigrants made up the workforce for the Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines, respectively

  • Camping Out, Early Morning, c 1870–1875

  • Scene near Deeth. Mount Halleck in Distance, c 1869, (half of a stereograph)

    Forty-six months after they began construction, the two railroads came together and officially ‘united’ the United States

  • East and West Shaking Hands at Laying of Last Rail, 1869

    Western Union offered coverage direct from the scene, the first major news event carried ‘live’ from coast-to-coast. Telegraph wires were attached to one of the ceremonial spikes and as it was gently tapped with a silver maul, the ‘strokes’ were heard across the country

  • Shoshone Indians Looking at Locomotives on Desert, 1868

    The transcontinental railroad had opened the heart of the continent, and, within days of its completion, the country was transformed. Travel from New York to San Francisco was reduced from six months to 10 days, and at 10% of the cost
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    Martina Birk

    Update: 2024-09-11

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