"History's Headlines -- May 10, 1869 -- Wedding of the Rails"

Unidentified Photographer

"Officials and workers of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railways held a ceremony on Promontory Summit, in Utah Territory—approximately thirty-five miles away from Promontory Point, the site where the rails were joined—to drive in the Golden Spike on May 10, 1869. The spike symbolized completion of the first transcontinental railroad, an event that connected the nation from coast to coast and reduced a journey of four months or more to just one week."

Source:  "The Library of Congress -- American Memory"