Talk:Promontory, Utah

message: I recall hearing on a "Today in History" feature that when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific roadbuilding crews came close to each other, they kept right on building past each other, laying parallel tracks.  After several dozen miles of parallel tracks had been laid, the President ordered them to join the lines at Promontory Summit and drive the golden spike there.  Thus, they would have had to pull up a lot of tracks and construct a single track to join them up.  I suppose some of the double tracking could have been left to allow trains to pass in that area. GBC (talk) 03:13, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Does this mean that the exact location of the famous photograph of the golden spike hammering is known? I remember reading a center-column Wall Street Journal story from the late 1960s stating that the exact location had been lost. 06:55, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Parallel tracks by rivals 

message: When I was in school, the location of the Golden Spike ceremony was always described as "Promontory Point." The wiki article about Promontory Point makes it clear that the point and the summit are two different things. However, the two are still confused in the public mind--googling "Promontory Point" and "Golden Spike" gets 12,000+ hits. I think that this article as well as  the pp article should contain a reference to the distinction. As an aside, does anyone know how the confusion occurred?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.91.64.185 (talk) 21:20, 5 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I believe the confusion resulted from the fact that both the original grade, and the replacement Lucin Cutoff passed features with Promontory in the name. Dave (talk) 18:40, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  "Point" has two meanings: the tip of the cape (a geographical feature) and the point where two railroads met (an otherwise unnamed location). The term "Summit" doesn't so clearly imply a meeting point. The objective of the railroad was to cross the continent, not to climb to the summit of a mountain. We shouldn't contradict the Library of Congress by calling them wrong: "" – wbm1058 (talk) 19:09, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

text:  See wikt:point: 9. A specific location or place, seen as a spatial position. [from 14th c.] — We should meet at a pre-arranged point. – wbm1058 (talk) 19:13, 14 September 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  "point " v "summit" 

message: IMO this paragraph is not relevent to an article about a mountain summit in Utah, and more appropriate for the article on the First Transcontinental Railroad, which already contains similar content.
:However, although eastern and western railroads had met, the transcontinental railroad was not yet coast-to-coast. It was not until September 1869, that the Mossdale bridge across the San Joaquin River near Lathrop, California was completed. This vertical lift drawbridge was the final section in uninterrupted travel across continental America.
Dave (talk) 18:40, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text:  How can it not be relevant??? Promontory, Utah is famous being the site of the meeting of the first American  transcontinental railways. However despite the ceremony, the actual coast-to-coast journey was actually not yet possible. How on earth can that not be important It's expanding the context fro which this place is historically important/famous.??  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.155.68.100 (talk) 22:22, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It may be relevant on the Golden Spike article if sourced, but not to this article. Vsmith (talk) 00:11, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Moved paragraph from article

message: Any thought of adding a map to this article? As a non-American, not knowing where Utah is, a map of where Promontory is would be useful and of interest. It would fit well in the infobox with the picture  Lanma726 (talk) 23:12, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I have been bold and done this myself.Lanma726 (talk) 23:39, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Well there should also be some closer up maps, and also show the point vs. summit locations. Jidanni (talk) 02:53, 9 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title: Map