Over the range2008
a history of the Promontory summit route of the Pacific
by Richard V. Francaviglia
"The 1869 meeting of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads at Promontory Summit (not Promontory Point, where it often is mistakenly placed) was, both literally and symbolically, a historical event of indisputable significance in American history.".
"Richard Francaviglia reviews May 10, 1869, and what led to that day, but from there his narrative launches into space and time to consider the geographic history of the event and where it occurred, on the spine of the lonely Promontory Range at the northern end of the Great Salt Lake. What we consequently learn is the stories of the transportation corridor that developed across Promontory and of the society of people who settled that remote, and frontier, many of them connected to the railroad. Francaviglia reaches back farther than...