ANDREW JOSEPH RUSSELL
Meeting of the Rails at Promontory Point 1869
oakland museum of art, oakland, california
hands: marcia eyerman, 11.9.93

In 1844, Asa Whitney, a New Yorker, suggested that the federal government sponsor a transcontinental railroad to speed travel to the East. Congress surveyed routes and listened to pitches from various towns and territories before deciding that the Central Pacific Railroad should build east from San Francisco while the Union Pacific would build west from Chicago. The rails met on the 10th of May, 1869, at Promontory Point, Utah, in a photo opportunity.

California sent a golden spike, and A. J. Russell, who had made photographs as a captain in the Union Army, set up his camera with its 10 x 13 inch glass plates. After the speeches, according to historian Barry B. Combs, the Union Pacific’s engine No. 119 (right) moved over the spot where the spike was placed, and close to the Central Pacific’s locomotive, Jupiter, which sported a wide funnel designed for engines burning wood. Grenville M. Dodge (left) and Samuel S. Montague, the two chief construction engineers, shook hands.

For most of a century, this picture was attributed to another photographer, but handwriting at the top of the negative clearly identifies the wet-plate as Russell’s.